One Will Win
by Lightning4022
Summary: We are in the Arena! Come vote for your favorite tribute on my profile! When the characters fight, I will be behind the scenes rolling dice and comparing stats to make it realistic. Old title was "37th Annual Hunger Games."
1. Chapter 1

**Lightning4022, here! Welcome to the 37****th**** annual Hunger Games! The difference between this and other SYOT's is the fact that the battles are all done in a system similar to a role-play game, with health points, damage points, dice, etc. The health points will be different per district, and each district will have certain advantages and special weapons that I will publish after the characters are submitted. Of course, I will also be writing, but I will not choose who wins. Basically, the characters will. Please submit no more than four characters, and use the template below, but feel free to add more detail! If not all slots are filled in by this weekend, I will fill them in with my own characters and start the games! Thank you!**

Name:

Age:

Gender:

District:

Appearance:

Personality:

Strategy:

Reaped?:

Reaction:

If volunteered, why?:

Allies?:

Family/ Friends:

**Also, I will not be doing sponsor points, but if you review often, I am more likely to give your character a main role in the games! Thank you!**


	2. Character List 1

**Alrighty, thanks to everyone who submitted! I have decided that creators of characters cannot sponsor, but outside authors can, so if you have any friends on FanFiction, encourage them to read the story! I will post the health points, etc. For actual gameplay soon, and have already written several chapters into the story. I will post them this weekend. For the pre-arena stuff, I have chosen two characters POVs per day. It is not based on district, but instead on personality and who I think would be strongest where. I am really excited to get into the arena, but first we need YOUR tributes! Here's what I have already:**

**1 Female: **Lara Moriss (18) by Jayfish

**1 Male: **Hector Castell (14) by Lupus Overkill

**2 Female:** Amaryllis Boste (16) by BloodRansom

**2 Male: **Menelaus Causter Jr. (18) by Lupus Overkill

**3 Female:** Campry Evens (18) by MHM616

**3 Male: **Binar Vetens (15) by Lupus Overkill

**4 Female:** Axeley Willow (15) by DEDEBUG9

**4 Male: **Xander Arlen (17) by MydniteShadow1996

**5 Female:** Resha Carishia (17) by Liveera

**5 Male: **Kithell Valenteen (17) by BloodRansom

**6 Female:** Lysemet Sprintyarrow (16) by lookingpastmysadness

**6 Male: **Sebastian Cole (16) by Esse Quam Videri

**7 Female:** Elysium Oak (15) by Jazzy Pseudonym

**7 Male: **Jairus Cooper (15) by mystery muffin

**8 Female:** Isabella Corde (13) by aquacupcake

**8 Male: **Ryan Karry (14) by aquacupcake

**9 Female:** Sophie Descartes (16) by RainbowsEndInGold

**9 Male: **Zenith Roa (16) by Jayfish

**10 Female:** Hayley Thalia Jackson (13) by Bono

**10 Male: **Sormir Keelz (15) by BloodRansom

**11 Female:** Ebony Willow (17) by it-was-enchanting

**11 Male: **Dallas Bond (12) by Bear Juice

**12 Female:** Brandi Hahn (16) by Fuzzycat901

**12 Male:** Micha Tolo (14) by MydniteShadow1996

**So, I need two more characters before we can start! I changed a couple of characters' districts if the one that they applied to was taken, but nothing else. Also, it-was-enchanting, can you review with Ebony's information? Thanks! These characters are all really awesome, but remember, if you want to, you can send in up to four tributes! So please send in more! **

**P.S. If you have any free time, please check out my two other stories, ****Another Face in the Sky**** and ****You Monster****. Thank you!**

**Thanks,**

**Lightning4022**


	3. POV Listing

**Alrighty, all of the characters are done, and now I start the tricky part! Here is the full list of whose POV will be used in which part: (in parentheses are gender and district)**

**Reapings: **Elysium Oak (F7) and Binar Vetens (M3)

**Train Ride: **Axeley Willow (F4) and Kithell Valenteen (M5)

**Chariots: **Resha Carishia (F5) and Hayley Thalia Jackson (F10)

**Training 1 Part 1: **Lara Moriss (F1) and Sophie Descartes (F9)

**Training 1 Part 2: **Isabella Corde (F8) and Amaryllis Boste (F2)

**Training 2 Part 1: **Jairus Cooper (M7) and Lysemet Sprintyarrow (F6)

**Training 2 Part 2: **Ryan Karry (M8) and Micha Tolo (M12)

**Game Maker Session: **Menelaus Causter Jr. (M2) and Sormir Keelz (M10)

**Training Scores: **Brandi Hahn (F2) and Dallas Bond (M11)

**Interviews: **Sebastian Cole (M6) and Xander Arlen (M4)

**Night Before: **Zenith Roa (M9) and Campry Evans (F3)

**Helicopter Ride: **Hector Castell (M1) and Ebony Willow (F11)

**I am done with most of these, but the wait because I need to type and upload them. Thanks to my beta reader, sarahhaley, for editing these!**


	4. Reapings!

**Here are the Reapings! Thanks to Jazzy Pseudonym and Lupus Overkill for the excellent characters, and to my beta reader, Sarahhaley!**

**Elysium Oak- District 7 Female**

The bright morning sun shone through the leaves of the tree that I was sleeping in, and dragged me into the waking world.

Today was Reaping Day.

Of course, I wasn't going to go. I had been living a life of solitude for the past few years, hiding up in the trees at night and stealing my basic necessities from the people of District 7. We didn't have any barrier between the district and the forest, since that was where most of the people worked, including my father. He had been occupied as a logger, one of the most dangerous jobs, which always went to the poor people. My mother had worked as a carpenter, until she became pregnant with me, and died during childbirth.

After my father's death, which was documented as a "logging accident" but I knew was really murder by Peacekeepers, I had dropped out of school and gone into hiding. Peacekeepers had searched for me for months, but later had quit, assuming me dead, just like the rest of my family. Now, I spent my days alone, coming and going as I pleased, and had learned the fine art of sleeping in trees.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten since yesterday morning. The townspeople would be cooking huge feasts for after the Reaping, which would be left unguarded for several hours, when I could break into houses and steal some food.

I, of course, wouldn't go to the reaping, because according to records, I no longer existed, and there was no chance of my name called. There were definitely some advantages to being dead.

I climbed down from my tree, and headed toward the poorest part of the district, where there was little security, the houses consisting of stray pieces of plastic and plywood, hastily nailed to the wooden frame, with empty doorways and window frames. Glass was too expensive, and I easily darted in and out of kitchens, taking my food for the week, only taking a little from each house so it wouldn't be noticed.

The houses had all been empty, and so far I had easily been able to get everything that I needed, but as I went to the last one on my route, someone must have seen me. They shouted, "Stop! Thief!" and two nearby Peacekeepers, who were checking to make sure that everyone was making their way towards the Town Square for the Reaping and shouting at a few stragglers.

I turned and ran back toward the forest, but they were faster than me, and they each grabbed one of my arms.

The one on my left hissed in my ear, "Why aren't you at the Reapings? What is your name?"

Under normal circumstances, I would have shouted something rude at them and tried to get away, but I was so panicked that I just whimpered, "Elysium. Elysium Oak."

The second one pondered this for a moment, as if the name sounded familiar, and then shouted, "Hey! Aren't you the girl who disappeared two years ago? We're taking you to the Town Square!"

My only seed of hope now was the fact that I was "dead," and couldn't be Reaped. Serving whatever punishment they gave me here would certainly be better than dying on public television, right?

I had been a contestant for one year, when I was twelve and my dad was still alive, and having to go back to the Square brought back painful memories of my father's funeral, where I stood by myself on a stage much like the one that had been erected for the Reaping. The mayor had placed a Medal of Honor around my small neck, handed me an envelope with a small sum of money, and bidden me goodbye. After that, I had disappeared into the forest and begun my small life of solitude.

I daydreamed through the entire Treaty of Treason, and was still being held by the Peacekeepers when our district escort stepped onstage. She was new, and completely orange. Skin, hair, clothes, _everything_ had been dyed this ugly shade of orange that caused her to resemble a moldy tangerine. She stepped over to the glass bowls with the names, and drew from the girls' bowl.

"Allegra Pincince!"

A nervous looking girl stepped up to the stage, twiddling her thumbs, and glancing around for help.

"Any volunteers?" the escort called. Today was Allegra's lucky day, because before I knew what had happened, a Peacekeeper raised my hand.

"She volunteers."

"_No_! I don't! Let me go!" I shouted, struggling to escape the iron grip of my captors. I was dragged onstage, head hanging, as Allegra stepped down. She gave me a small glance of pity and thanks as I passed her. The Peacekeepers told the district escort that my name was Elysium Oak, and the Reapings continued.

A boy named Jairus Cooper was sentenced to death alongside me, as the other tribute from our district. I paid no attention to him as I was dragged onto the train. He went into the Justice Building for goodbyes, but I had no one to talk to, so they didn't allow me to go.

And I hadn't even had any breakfast.

**Binar Vetens- District 3 Male**

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Ugh, I should've made the alarm tone for this clock less obnoxious.

I dragged myself out of bed, and brushed my hair until it showed some semblance of readiness. My mother had set one of my father's old suits on the bed for me, and I pulled it on. I glanced around my half of the room that I shared with my brother, Tect.

The contrast between us was amusing, and our personalities often clashed. Our differences in living style was an epitome of this difference. While his side was neat and orderly, with a single computer on a white desk in the corner, my side was haplessly strewn with various manuals, books, and parts of machines that I spent my spare time building.

I left the room to go to the kitchen, where my mother and Tect were already sitting. Tect was wearing another one of my father's suits, which we still kept for events like these. He had passed away eight years ago due to heart failure, and although my mother still grieved occasionally, we had moved on, and were getting by alright.

My mother had the day off with us, as she worked as a teacher at our school, which was closed for Reaping Day, one of our only District holidays. My two best friends knocked on the door, and let themselves in. Ben immediately grabbed a stack of pancakes, and started talking between bites.

"So… Are… Before… Reaping?" He asked, his mouth full of food.

"What?"

He finished chewing, and then spoke again. "What are we doing before the Reaping?"

"Well, I figured we could go upstairs and work on that new computer for a bit, and then head down to the Town Square."

My other friend, Sean, got his backpack full of designs, and we went back to the bedroom, leaving my mother and Tect to their breakfast. We worked in frenzy for almost five hours, and the hardware was almost complete when Tect told us that we had to leave.

No one was thinking about the odds of one of us getting reaped as we walked down to the Square. Tect went over to the 17's section, and the three of us went to the 15's, where we resumed our planning, all through the Treaty of Treason. Only after Campry Evens took the stage as the female tribute did we pay attention, anxiously waiting, hoping that the next victim would be someone that we didn't know. No such luck. The escort pulled out the small slip of paper, and read.

"Binar Vetens, please come to the stage."

I walked up without a word, wondering what would happen, and calculating my chances of victory.

"Any volunteers?"

Ben, Sean, and Tect all started to raise their hands, feeling obligated to protect me as their brother and friend, but I glared at them. If any one of us could win, it was me. They put their hands down. I shook Campry's hand with no emotion, and was led to the Justice building or Goodbyes.

Ben and Sean came in first, both trying to hide their sadness, for my sake.

"You have to come back," Sean said, eyes filled with rage. He had always hated the Capitol, but I think that seeing me as a tribute in these games pushed him over the edge. I hoped that this wouldn't cause him to do anything stupid, for his own sake.

We sat in silence for the next few minutes, until a Peacekeeper came in and told them to leave. We hugged goodbye. Over the next few weeks, they would see me all over television, but I could only hope that_ I_ would get to see _them_ again.

My mother came in next, with Tect right behind her. He spoke, with a slightly annoyed, patronizing tone. His face was red and puffy, like he had stopped crying right before he entered, wanting to protect his baby brother from his emotions.

"You could've let me volunteer, you unintelligent little slug."

I had no choice but to chuckle, despite the depressed atmosphere, but then I became serious after a moment.

"You are much closer to getting a job, and even if you had taken my place, I could've been reaped again. This was your last reaping, so mom will have at least one person to support her in old age."

At this, mom started crying, and shakily pulled something out of her purse. She handed it to me, and I examined it. It was a cube, with each side a different color. You could move different parts of the cube, and there were six different colors. I assumed that the goal was to get each side to be only one color. Even now, I felt calmed by tinkering with it, and knew it would be a great district token.

"I found it behind the school, and thought you might like it. I love you, son."

She held Tect and I for the last few minutes until they, too, had to leave, and I was escorted onboard the train to the Capitol.

My friends would just have to finish that computer without me.

**So, how was it? Please, if you have any suggestions, just send them over! I am almost done with Axeley and Kithell's train rides! **

**Also, PLEASE submit a male tribute for District 10. He is the last character that I need. And also, it-was-enchanting, please send me the info for Ebony Willow.**

**Lightning4022**


	5. Train Rides

**Here are the train rides! Thanks to DEDEBUG9 and Blood Ransom for this chapter's tributes, and to my beta reader, sarahhaley, who would always be there for me if I published a chapter with the word "Reapings" misspelled! That hasn't happened yet, but I always fear that it will. She is my security that that will not ever ACTUALLY happen. Thanks, girl!**

**P.S. This is always one of my major pet peeves in Hunger Games fanfiction. Katniss says herself that the label "Career" tribute is slang from District 12. I will not refer to the previously trained tributes as "Careers", unless I am in the POV of a character from District 12. So don't be confused. And yes, I know that I refer to them as Careers in my other stories, but I wasn't thinking, and was trying to give a point of reference. Sorry for ranting. But don't be confused when they aren't called Careers.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games, although I really wish I could.**

**Axeley Willow- District 4 Female**

The Reapings had gone exactly as planned. I volunteered, much to my Dad's relief, and I was ready to take on these games. Sort of. My district partner, Xander, seemed strong, and I had talked to him before at the training center in our district. There seemed to be something off about him, though. We regarded each other for a while, until our two mentors, Haeli and Rick, entered and sat down on the couch, presumably to watch the recaps of the other Reapings.

Rick had won the games two years ago, and was all business as he flicked on the television to watch the Reapings. As we watched, I noticed that an unusual number of tributes were volunteers this year, nine out of twenty-four. Besides the usual of District 1, 2, and Xander and I, there was the girl from 5, who looked formidable and well trained, the girl from 7, who had been forced by Peacekeepers to volunteer, and some loony little boy, who I was positive was clueless about what he was doing. I made a mental note to try to ally with the girl from 5, and watched the rest of the reapings, yawning. There were the classic sobby girls, and the steely guys, with almost no exceptions. How boring.

I would show them.

During the commentary afterward, they showed my reaping again, and I let out a sigh of relief. I had managed to keep a calm face as I volunteered, despite the fact that I _really_ hadn't wanted to play. But, of course, my greedy father had desired the fame and money that came with having a victor in the family, and had put me, his only sane child, up to get it.

I had been enrolled in the tribute-training program at the early age of seven, and I had become highly skilled with my favorite weapon, the spiked club. There were no doubts about the primitive barbarity of the weapon, but those traits were highly valued among Capitol citizens, so I went ahead training with it. I could now kill an unarmed dummy in under 20 seconds, and could easily knock a fully padded sparring partner unconscious with just a few well-placed blows.

I hated every minute of it.

Unlike many of my training buddies, I really had no desire to kill, just a desire to get to a normal life after winning the games. But who would I even become, and what was normal anymore, after I had killed a bunch of children? I had asked myself these questions several times in the past, but still had no answer.

Our mentors turned off the television, since the droll commentary had finished, and motioned for us to sit at the table, where the Capitol's servants had placed a delicious dinner. We ate in silence for a few minutes, and then began to discuss strategy. I was in a bad mood, and this just escalated my funk to a more extreme degree, much to everyone else's chagrin.

"I assume that you are both trained?' Haeli asked, with a tone that I automatically interpreted as mockery. Thinking back, I probably interpreted everything said as mockery. Xander, on the other hand, took it at face value, and nodded. I joined in.

"Excellent," she responded, "I will train Axeley, and Rich will train Xander. Will both of you be allying with the other trained tributes?

"Yes, but please, call me Axxy," I growled, "you know, I felt this… how do I say… connection when you began talking this intricate strategy. Please, do continue," my voice dripped with thick sarcasm. I didn't like Haeli, and figured that if I was going to be in the Hunger Games, I could at least have a little fun before they started.

"Well, then," Xander muttered, attempting to ease the tension that I had so artfully woven around the room, "I want to be allies with Axxy, but can we plan strategies separately?" _So, he is planning betrayal, eh? Two can play at that,_ I thought in my head.

Haeli said yes, and the two of us went two train cars down to a living room, of sorts. She obviously dreaded mentoring me, after my display at dinner. I knew that this was going to be a fun evening, for me, anyways, and a nice way to put some of my own tension and worry onto her shoulders.

I mustered up my rudest voice when we sat down on the couch, and let my mouth do the thinking.

I started by gushing praise at her, "Wow! Haeli Moore! A real live Hunger Games victor! I always dreamed that I would be mentored by someone as _amazing_ as you! I mean, the way you volunteered at 13, _brilliant!_ I don't know anyone who would do something as bold and stupid as that! You really thought you were so amazing! Trust me, _everyone_ back home was rooting for you. Nobody said _anything_ about what a stupid, arrogant brat you were," my mind was turning, coming up with all sorts of mean ways to spew my frustration at her. I remembered the trained 18 year old who Amber had volunteered for in her games, and took the conversation in that direction, "And the girl at the training center who had waited all of her life to be in the game that you volunteered for? She says thanks; she always wanted to have to work as a prostitute, since she had no academic training. Nice work. And killing your allies in their sleep, pretty good. But killing them on the _first day of the Games?_ Pure genius! And now, to be in your presence? I feel the need to bow down to the almighty!"

By that point, my eyes were wide with mocking awe, my hands clasped, gasping. I drew in a breath, and dropped the act, laughing immensely. She was not amused.

I stood, so that my face was as close to hers as possible, and stared straight into her eyes. I spat, "Don't. Push. Me. I. Don't. Need. Your. Stupid. Help," turned on one heel, and went straight to my room, locking the door behind me.

I observed my room, disgusted with the decoration.

Because out district was one of the closest to the Capitol, there was no bed in the room, just a couch, TV, dresser, and shower. The theme? Pink sheep. Puffy, cotton candy _sheep_. I. Hate. Sheep.

I ran to the shower, and stepped into the hot stream of water. As my mind cleared, I realized that maybe; just maybe, I had been a little bit rude to Haeli. Just a little. Oops. She was only doing her job, wanting me to win so that I could replace her as mentor, allowing her a happy, normal life, just like I wanted. I had been in such a bad mood from the Reapings and the goodbyes that I hadn't even realized this.

My friends had been supportive enough, but my family had been a complete mess. My dad had just told me to "win" and left, but my remaining siblings had gone completely crazy from sadness and frustration, with absolutely no regard to _my_ feelings. My last words to them before the Peacekeepers had made them leave were, "Please, straighten things out by the time I get home. For me."

The train lurched to a halt. We were here, in the Capitol. I dried off and found a gray tracksuit on the couch. Thankfully, the suit was 100% sheep-free. I put on my game face, went down the hall, and stepped into the train station, smiling and waving to the cameras. I was showed into a limousine and driven to the Training Center, where my 23 fellow competitors and I would spend the next week.

The limo drove for several minutes, and pulled into the Center. I stepped out of the limo and into a garage, where several limousines were already parked. Our district was one of the first ones to arrive, and we would have about a day to sleep and get our bearings until District 12 arrived, when we would all participate in the Chariot Rides.

Two more limousines pulled up. One was carrying Xander, and the other one with Haeli, Rick, and our district escort, whose name I hadn't learned. We rode the elevator in silence, while I glanced apologetically to Haeli. Our eyes met, and she nodded.

We arrived at the fourth floor, and Haeli motioned to the others to go to their rooms and get some sleep before the other tributes arrived. Now that we were standing alone in the lobby, I took my chance.

"Haeli, I'm sorry about earlier. I guess it was stress. I could really use your help, if you would give it to me," I apologized.

She chuckled and responded, "I understand, Axxy. I will start with training tomorrow, though, okay? I really need some sleep."

With this, I headed down the hall to a room with my name on it. The door was unlocked, so I let myself into the new, blue _sheepless_ room.

I sunk into a deep sleep, dreaming of this next week in Hell.

Let the games begin.

**Kithell Valenteen- District 5 Male**

I was still in shock from the Reapings.

Being called to the stage wasn't what had gotten me off, but seeing my sister of barely five years tugging on my shirt and innocently asking, "where are you going, big brother?" as I boarded the train had crushed my heart. My two youngest brothers had been more aware of the situation, and had solemnly bidden my farewell. We all knew that my chances of returning home were slim, and the lingering feeling of my parents' hug and girlfriend's kiss dragged me down as I tried to forget the past.

I sat dejectedly in the dining room of the car, wondering what to do. My district partner had volunteered, and had been bombarded with friends and fans after the Reaping. I had glimpsed a line stretching from her room in the Justice Building to the Town Square, and knew that she was going to be awhile.

My mentors and escort would arrive soon, though, so I turned on the small television, sat in a rocking chair, and waited. They hadn't broadcast the Reapings yet, so I watched the early commentary, with only pictures of this year's tributes. The announcers were trying to build suspense by dropping hints about the Reapings, and then adding, "But you'll just have to wait and see, so keep watching!" as if most of the people watching had any choice in the matter.

It was almost hard to grasp the fact that _I_ was playing in the Hunger Games this year, but once I saw my school picture on the screen, the reality of the situation finally sunk in, like a kick to the chest.

My mentors entered the car, saw me, and sat down, chatting away.

"Well, at least the boy seems to have a brain," the main said.

"Yes, but Resha looks pretty powerful. I think what she has been trained. I might just get a replacement next year!" the woman, Amber, chuckled. They both acted unaware of my presence. I rolled my eyes and continued watching the television, anxiously waiting for the Reapings.

My district partner, Resha, jogged in, the escort close behind, only a few minutes before the train departed. Her mother was one of the other three victors in our district, and Resha had chosen to follow in her footsteps, getting trained for the games. She obviously planned to ally with the District 1, 2, and 4 tributes, and not me. Thankfully, her mom wasn't mentoring anymore, and Resha requested Amber to be her mentor. They sat together, and the male mentor introduced himself to me as Rory, and told me to watch for potential allies. I didn't remember his games, but he seemed nice enough. The Reapings began, with only slight breaks for comments.

Districts 1, 2, and 4 were all volunteers, as usual. 3 seemed intelligent enough, and at Resha's volunteering there was much canned applause added in, leaving me barely noticed. This was fine by me; after all, the less of a target I appeared as, the better. I watched the rest of the reapings carefully, doing my best to scope out allies.

There were quite a few people with potential, judging by their reactions. I grabbed a notepad and wrote down: _Boys from 7 and 8, Girls from 6 and 12. _They all had enough sense to hide their emotions while on camera, and by doing that, slip below the radar. I would approach them during training, and see if any of them were interested.

Rory turned off the TV, and the five of us ate our dinner. Rory and I kept to ourselves, but Amber, Resha, and the escort babbled about the other tributes throughout the entire meal.

We asked to be mentored separately, and the three women left, leaving Rory and I alone to discuss my strategy.

"May I see your list of tributes?" Rory asked.

I handed him the paper, and he glanced at it with a nod of approval.

"Good. Practice with them in training, and casually bring up the topic of an alliance. Don't be too pushy, and be open and nice to other people as well. The less people out there trying to kill you, the better," he said, handing me back the list.

I laughed, and said, "I'm also looking for an ally proficient with a weapon, in case we get attacked, I said.

Rory added, "Do you have any special abilities?" obviously skeptical.

"Yes," I replied, taking him by surprise, "I am actually very good with explosives, and I may have figured out how the mines under the starting pads in the arena work."

"Amazing!" he exclaimed, "Be sure not to tell anyone except me and anyone that you are absolutely allied with, because the Gamemakers will take away that advantage if they find out. Be sure to train hard, too, in case something goes wrong with the mines."

"Thank you," I said, grateful for his help and faith. "This is a great head start. I'm going to get some sleep, but I will talk more tomorrow. I'm really glad that you're helping me."

He smiled, and I solemnly walked to my temporary room. He had so much more faith in me than I did, but at least someone cared.

The trip from our District to the Capitol took roughly ten hours, so I entered my room, changed into a pair of pajamas, and fell asleep.

A capitol servant shook me awake, and once he saw me stir, he immediately left my room. The clock on the wall read 2:00 AM. We would be arriving soon, so I changed into the tracksuit that had been laid out for me, splashed some water onto my face, and did my best to emotionally ready myself for the Cameras.

Unsurprisingly, the Capitol citizens were wide awake, and I was blinded by the flash of cameras as the door opened into the train station. I was ushered through the crowd to a limousine, and all five of the people on our District's team were shoved inside. We drove off to the Training Center, where we would be dressed and put on out chariots later tonight.

We piled out of the limousine and into a garage, then an elevator, and finally the fifth floor of the Center. We still had several hours until the District 12 train arrived, so we all found our new rooms and retired.

I lay in bed, wondering what the Games would bring. Eventually, I drifted to sleep, with one single emotion growing inside me.

_Fear._

**So, how was it? I'm working on Resha's and Hayley's chariot rides now. I have a basic idea for their costumes, but please feel free to share yours, anypony! Resha is District 5 and Hayley is District 10. And here's the important note that I advertised in the title. It is about the arena fighting, so listen up!**

** Every tribute will have an opportunity to train with a weapon in the Capitol, and during battle, they will get a damage bonus for fighting with the weapon that they trained with. The bonus varies per district, but I need you to review, telling me what your character's "special weapon" will be. If they find them in the arena, they will get a bonus! The deadline for this submission is two chapters from now, the first day of Training. If you haven't submitted your special weapon by then, your character will not have one, and will not be eligible for the bonus. These weapons CANNOT be firearms. They must be traditional Hunger Games weapons, but you can feel free to get creative. Think: Dungeons and Dragons. PM me if you still have questions.**

**I love to thank the people that reviewed my story, so I always list their names in the next chapter. So, thanks to:**

**Jazzy Pseudonym**

**mystery muffin**

**Lupus Overkill**

**BloodRansom**

**DEDEBUG9**

**Jayfish**

**aquacupcake**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**Esse Quam Videri**

**Thanks, you guys! And thanks again to my beta reader, sarahhaley. Remember, send me your special weapons. And the Games are now officially CLOSED!**

**See you next chapter, **

**Lightning4022**


	6. Stylist Session

**Here are the stylist sessions! As you may notice, this is a very short chapter. I have several reasons for this, the main reason being that I was lazy. Sorry about that. The other reason is that The chariot rides are a very long section of time for just two tributes, so I decided to break it up into two chapters, each with just one character. This means that Resha's POV will be the time before the chariot rides, including meeting her stylist, and Hayley's POV will be during and after the chariot rides, which will be posted in the next chapter. I was completely done with Resha's story before I had even started Hayley's, so I figured this would be much faster. I am working on Hayley's story now, and it should be published soon. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy reading Resha's story! I had a lot of fun working on this chapter.**

**Also, if you haven't ever watched a show called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, then you should check it out! It is very cleverly written, the animation is good, and I make many references to the show in my story. If you think I am weird, then Google the phrase "brony." This will prove to you how un-weird I am. Still not convinced? It may interest you to know that all of the people working on this story (sarahhaley, Isaac and I) are ALL fans. Bronies will rule the world. Thanks for putting up with this chapter's rant!**

**Thanks to my beta reader sarahhaley, my Head Gamemaker Isaac, and liveera for this chapter's tribute! Hayley's chariot rides will be posted soon!**

**Resha Carishia- District 5 Female**

A capitol servant woke me in the morning, and I went back to the dining and living area of our floor. Amber, Rory, Kithell, and the escort were all there, already eating. I had decided yesterday that Amber was the only one on our team worth befriending. Rory had earned his title as victor by mere chance, and Kithell looked impossibly weak. Plus, I had my sights on much better allies.

Our escort was much to 'image obsessed' to eat anything, but everyone else was munching away, so I grabbed a plate and was served by the attendants. After all, I needed to keep up my health so I could win these games.

We still had not met our stylists, as they were staying in another building about a block away, but I knew that our district's tributes had always been dressed well. I was anxious to see what we would get this time.

There were still several hours until District 12, the district farthest away from the Capitol arrived, and we would spend the remaining time with our mentors and stylists, prepping for the Chariot Rides. In a larger sense, we were already prepping for the actual Games to come.

Amber tapped my shoulder to signal the end of breakfast, and we went down the hall to a small room. It was time for strategy.

"Now will be a crucial time for first impressions if you wish to ally with the higher districts," she said, skipping the formalities, "Approach them, wherever they choose to congregate, before the chariots leave. They will probably invite you into the conversation, but wait until they do before talking. Be sure to mention that you were trained, and then tell them that you look forward to training with them tomorrow. On the chariots, be sure to outshine Kithell. He is your enemy. Be outgoing and attractive for potential sponsors, but try not to draw too much attention away from the upper Districts. Got it?"

I stood there, nodding and blinking, processing the large volume of information thrown at me. They all seemed like good tips, since I hadn't really put much thought into the social interaction part of the Games. It looked like they might be just as, if not more, important for survival than the actual fighting part.

The next few hours passed in much the same manner, with only slight pauses for Amber to breathe. The escort interrupted her by knocking on the door, and told us that it was time to meet our stylists. The three of us crammed into the elevator with Rory and Kithell, and it creaked down several floors until we again arrived at the garage, and stepped into a limousine. The tributes' exit times had been carefully planned so that no tributes outside of the same District would meet before the Chariot Rides, and so both the starting and finishing points of our trip had been completely empty.

We arrived at our destination, a place called the Remake Center, where our stylists were waiting. We stepped into an elaborate, mirrored hallway, and found the doors marked with our names.

"See you at the chariots," Kithell says to me. I nod, and open the door.

The room is stark white, save for mirrors on the wall, and a dresser covered with makeup, wigs, and accessories. I find a chair and sit as my prep team bursts in and begins chatting. They tell me to stand in the center of the room. I take off my clothes and try not to complain as they wax, pinch, and pull at me. Amber told me to do so, as she had accidentally offended her team during her Games, and as revenge they dyed her hair a putrid shade of green.

I gathered from observation that their names were Fontana, Georgionald, and Ismont. Georgionald would have been quite attractive if he hadn't replaced his hair with peacock feather. Ismont had gotten modifications that replaced his skin with scales and fur. Fontana looked mostly human, with only minor plastic surgeries, breast enhancements, and pink hair and fingernails. If these people were the prep team, I was worried what my main stylist would look like.

They brushed something on my face, rubbed some sort of blue dye into my hair, and then left. I pulled on a robe, feeling self-conscious, and went back to my chair. I had a few precious minutes of solitude before my stylist burst down both doors into their room, wheeling a bedazzled, covered clothing rack behind her.

"I. Am. Rarity!" she shouted! I looked at her, not sure if I was staring at an alien. She had completely pale, as in paper, skin, enormous, purple eyes, a tattoo on her hip that looked like three blue diamonds, shirt pulled up around it so that everyone could see, and curly purple hair. It wasn't until she turned that I saw the strangest part. Grafted onto her back, were large, purple butterfly wings that slowly flapped, as if she had control over them. She flew up to me, batting her enormous eyelashes, and asked, "Gorgeous, right?"

"Umm, sure?" I gulped. I was terrified of what I would be wearing, and what she would do to me. The best I could say about her was that her clothes and jewelry were for the most part tasteful, and I hoped that some of that would transfer over to what _I_ would be wearing.

My prep team had put blue streaks in my hair, one of my favorite colors, and this gave me an idea of the color scheme for my costume. As for the rest, I was clueless.

Rarity told me to sit, and we ate a delicious lunch before I was told to stand in the center of the room again. She pulled off the white cover sheet of the wardrobe cart to reveal a magnificent spread of clothing, with dresses, capes, shoes, cloves, and jewelry, every color ranging from midnight blue to the palest purple. These would be my outfits for the next week. They looked gorgeous.

Our district is responsible for producing the electricity that powers Panem, so our theme was electricity, as usual. She seemed to have done an exceptional job, despite the cliche, and many of the outfits sported a cleverly patterned material of photographs of lightning bolts.

She pulled a few pieces from the rack, and told me to remove my robe so she could dress me. I stood there as she put on the gown first, a floor length, strapless dress with a purple corset top and the lightning print on the skirt, then a blue fur cape, a blue pearl necklace and matching crown, and finally glass high heels that looked like they were made of ice. They were lined with a soft silk that made me feel impossibly rich, and the shoes reminded me of the old fairy tale of the girl with the glass shoes. Needless to say, it was amazing, and although I would never say this aloud, I felt like a princess. Rarity took me to a mirror, and I saw a majestic goddess, beautiful, intimidating, and strong.

She spent the last few minutes making minor adjustments to the clothes, since she hadn't known my measurements when the outfit was made, but soon I was ready. I thanked her countless times, glad that she hadn't been one of the screwup stylists that the lower districts always got, and went down the hall and into an elevator that would take me to the platform with the other chariots, and the other tributes.

It was time to meet my competition.

**So, how was it? I know this was a short chapter, but the amount of time per tribute was the same as all the others. Please let me know what you thought! Also, I am still waiting on about six authors for special weapons. Remember, you have until the training chapters begin to submit them, so that's like, one chapter! I won't publish the list of them, but I will say that the characters just don't have one if you don't submit, which will be a disadvantage in the arena. So submit soon! **

**As you know, I like to acknowledge the people that review, so thanks to:**

**Lupus Overkill**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**BloodRansom**

**Jazzy Pseudonym**

**Aquacupcake**

**Jayfish**

**Liveera**

**Sarahhaley**

**DEDEBUG9**

**It-was-enchanting**

**Thanks, you guys! And thanks again to my betareader sarahhaley for editing so quickly. I do believe that was 20 minutes for the entire chapter (yes, I timed it), so thank you for that!**

**See you next chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	7. Battle Information

**Okay, as you know, this story's battles will not be purely of my choice. The encounters will be random, and the fighting will be dictated by the character's level of proficiency and weapon. Each character will also have a given number of health points, as well as a weapon damage amount. I use a six-sided die (D6) to calculate the random parts of it. Things that deplete health points are battles, animal encounters, starvation, dehydration, lack of sleep, open wounds, etc. The health points vary per district, as do poison, starvation, and dehydration penalties. I will post all characters' health points at the beginning and end of each chapter, and when your character runs out of health points, he or she dies. You can also replenish health points with things like medicine, food, and health potions that are located in the arena. Here are the individual districts' information:**

District 1: Health: 50 Regular Weapon Damage: D6+2 Special Weapon Damage: D6+5

District 2: Health: 50 Regular Weapon Damage: D6+2 Special Weapon Damage: D6+5

District 3: Health: 45 Regular Weapon Damage: D6 Special Weapon Damage: D6+3

District 4: Health: 47 Regular Weapon Damage: D6+2 Special Weapon Damage: D6+5

District 5: Health: 45 Regular Weapon Damage: D6 Special Weapon Damage: D6+3

District 6: Health: 43 Regular Weapon Damage: D6 Special Weapon Damage: D6+3

District 7: Health: 40 Regular Weapon Damage: D6 Special Weapon Damage: D6+2

District 8: Health: 40 Regular Weapon Damage: D6 Special Weapon Damage: D6+2

District 9: Health: 37 Regular Weapon Damage: D6 Special Weapon Damage: D6+2

District 10: Health: 37 Regular Weapon Damage: D6-1 Special Weapon Damage: D6+1

District 11: Health: 35 Regular Weapon Damage: D6-1 Special Weapon Damage: D6+1

District 12: Health: 35 Regular Weapon Damage: D6-1 Special Weapon Damage: D6+1

The weaponless fighting damage is D6-1 for ALL Districts

**Let me know if you have any questions about this! Also, my betareader is editing the next real chapter as I type this, so it should be published soon! Aaaaand, I was bored in class today so I did the bloodbath part of the arena. And I've figured out who will die. It's going to be awesome, but I had so many problems with letting the people die. But the worst is over now, and I can't wait to actually write it out!**

**See you next REAL chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	8. Chariot Rides

**Here are the long-awaited chariot rides! This chapter is a very short chapter, since it is technically part two of last chapter. I had so much fun writing this, but I am really sorry for the long wait. I had writer's block! Oh No! But I am back, and I felt like I wrote a lot in this chapter. And I love the plot twist at the end, so thank you for that, awesome SYOT submitter! The next few chapters should be two POV's per chapter. I am working on Lara's and Sophie's first days of training now, and they should be posted soon! I am also DONE with the arena design.**

**And now for this chapter's rant- feel free to skip this part- our drama program has nothing to do for crew members during show week. I have literally spent four hours doing nothing but write. Fun, but not very productive. And our teacher isn't giving us any jobs to do. SOOOO, thanks for letting me rant. Oh wait, it's my story! I can do anything I want! MWAHAHAHAHA!**

**Funny story about this chapter- the stupid computer I am writing this from crashed SEVEN times while I was writing and editing. You have no idea how relieved I am to finally get this published.**

**Thanks to my betareader Sarahhaley, my Head Gamemaker Isaac, and Hayley Thalia for your character submission!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games**

** Hayley Thalia Jackson- District 10 Female**

My escort led me out of the dressing room and down the hall. It would have been an understatement to say that wearing my chariot outfit was an embarrassment. Despite all of the "fashion forward" talent in the Capitol, the lowest districts always managed to get stuck with crackhead amateur stylists.

Not that my own appearance mattered to me, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't go over well with potential sponsors. I was wearing a poorly fitting pair of overalls, made out of a patchwork of various animal prints, as well as a pink, chicken-feathered jacket and a worn out straw hat. My hair had been straightened and braided, and my face had been covered with makeup and glitter to a point beyond recognition. The overall look, I assumed, was that of a tacky, Capitolized cowgirl. It was all horribly inaccurate. For example, chickens have not, nor ever will be pink.

The best thing that I could say about the outfit was that the long sleeves covered all of the scars on my arms and legs that I had acquired over the years of _actual_ hunting and cattle ranching back home. Thinking about this reminded me of how much I missed my family and my peaceful life back home. When I left for the dazzling, dangerous city, the youngest few of my siblings hadn't known what was going on, which broke my heart. My older siblings and parents, on the other hand, promised that they would raise money in the District to sponsor me. I was very lucky that they had both the faith and money to spend on me in these Games, and the idea of them being with me in the arena made life much less scary.

As amazing as these guys were, they hadn't always been my family. My biological mother had dumped me in an orphanage where I learned to survive, hunt, and depend on myself. I became a provider for the younger kids, since the staff was overrun by so many orphans, without enough resources to care for them.

Then, the Jacksons, a wealthy, infertile couple decided to adopt several children, and our ragtag family of 10 lived a happy life together. Every eligible child so far had miraculously managed to escape the dangerous jaws of the Hunger games, until now. Nobody had been able to take my place, since all of my older siblings were boys, so none of them could volunteer for me. My younger sister Alicia tried to volunteer, but I stopped her, and accepted my role as tribute. It was now my plan to appear as a weak, small girl to pass by unnoticed, and learn as much about the other tributes as I could.

I kept this in mind as I approached the doors to the area where the other tributes, chariots, and horses were waiting. I shuffled over to the tenth chariot, and shied away from a horse that had come up to greet me.

In contrast to the gaudy costume I was wearing, the chariot was quite beautiful, with each corner bearing a different color and decoration scheme. The designs came together to represent the four seasons, each one seamlessly melting in the middle to a platform of leaves where my district partner and I would stand. It was magnificent, and I hoped that it would redeem my horrible costume in the eyes of the Capitol citizens.

I climbed onto the chariot and took my place just as Sormir, the boy from my District, entered the chariot area. His outfit was somehow even more bizarre than mine. He wore a cow suit with a golden sombrero and a lasso. I greeted him, and invited him to sit and observe the other tributes with me. He declined, and instead joined a growing mass of tributes in the center of the room, where people were socializing and meeting their competition. This was unusual, but not unheard of, and I hoped it would mean a less brutal time in the arena.

Sormir seemed friendly, and I knew he would have an easy time making allies. I, on the other hand, remained as I observed the other tributes and sized them up. Most of the tributes were here already, and I noticed a few people approaching Sormir, engaging in conversation. The stronger tributes from the upper districts were in a massive huddle around the District 1 chariot. I noticed the usual six of them, plus another girl. I assumed by her build that she was from one of the higher districts as well. This was alarming, because it meant that there would be yet another powerhouse killer on the loose when the Games began. I would have to train well over the next few days to even stand a chance against her.

Several people stayed on their Chariots, talking quietly to their district partners, or nervously glancing around at the others. The tributes on the chariots behind me were doing this, and I regarded them with interest, making a game out of imagining what they were saying. I became alarmed when the boy from 11 tried to feel up his much older and stronger district partner. The girl disabled him with a quick maneuver and wrapped his own arm around his neck. He started to panic, noticing that he could no longer breathe, and she whispered a quick warning to him and let go.

I couldn't help but smile at the girl, proud that she had done that, but I also knew that she would be a contender in these Games, and I definitely didn't want to find my arm strangling myself in the arena. I decided to take the opportunity to get on her good side. Our eyes met, and the girl began chuckling and glancing at her partner, who was now clutching his elbow and sitting as far away from her as possible. I giggled, and the girl from 12 joined in as well. We continued laughing for several minutes, all glad to have relieved some of the tension that had been building in us all day.

A bell rang, signaling that the chariots would leave in three minutes. The groups in the center of the area split up. Sormir shook hands with a tall, brown haired boy and climbed onto the chariot with me.

After a few moments of anxious waiting, the first chariot took off to the streets. These tributes were wearing glamorous outfits that reflected the light like many different gemstones.

The next pair of tributes stood on a pile of hopefully fake corpses, their horses in war armor and themselves sporting messy hair and bloody armor. This disturbing ensemble would be a hit with the gore loving spectators.

The tributes from District 3 looked obviously embarrassed, wearing absolutely no clothing, save for a few well-placed coils of wire. I felt bad for them, especially after seeing the amused look on the boy from 11's face as he stared at the girl. His district partner smacked him, and then went back to watching the rest of the tributes.

The cheers of the crowd resumed for District 4's tributes, who were dressed as merpeople, in a dangerous mix of sexy and scary. I felt a pang of jealousy when I thought of my costume compared to their excellent ones.

District five had their usual, yet impressive, electricity theme. I noticed the additional trained tribute on this chariot, wearing an elaborate gown and acting like the queen of the world. I assumed her attempt to join the trained alliance was successful, and nervously shifted my gaze to the next chariot.

The girl on the District 6 chariot looked nice, if a bit obscure, in a colorful sarong, but I was confused by the boy's robot costume. I felt bad for them, but gasped when I saw the next chariot.

District 7 usually got stuck with terrible stylists and tree suits, but this year both tributes wore tight fitting, armless clothing, with body painted leaves on their arms and faces. Their hair had magnolia flowers and green paint in it as well, and they looked like druids from old legend. The roar of the crowd swelled when they appeared, but slowly faded as they moved on.

The stylists for District 8 usually have a very easy time coming up with outfits to represent the District's industry, since 8 manufactures textiles. They could pretty much get away with making any costume, and this year the tributes wore finely crafted formal outfits. They weren't necessarily showstopping, but they looked comfortable and attractive, the luxurious fabric hugging their forms. I recognized the boy on the chariot as the one that Sormir had been talking to.

I barely noticed the District 9 outfits, other than the fact that the girl was pleading with the boy about something, and shouting out about how violence wasn't necessary. I admired her efforts to bring peace, but knew they were futile.

My stomach lurched as our chariot rolled forward through an opening in the wall and into the heart of the Capitol. I managed to put a sweet, innocent smile on my face as the cameras shifted to us. By this time, the audience was getting bored and the applause was barely audible, but loud music still blared and lights on the buildings nearby flashed in different colors.

Oddly, I wasn't scared or nervous, just fascinated. The large screens suspended in the air switched from showing us to showing the tributes from 11, wearing jumpsuits made of fake fruit. The boy was making 'seductive' faces, and the girl looked impressively unimpressed. What little attention was still being paid to the chariots switched from us to them, then the tributes from District 12, wearing the classic skimpy miner's outfits their stylists were so notorious for, and then finally back to the upper districts and their fantastic outfits.

Our chariot turned the corner to pass by President Snow's personal balcony. He had mysteriously risen to power a few years ago, and hardly anyone knew his story, or what had happened to the previous president.

He regarded us in a calm manner, smiling at his next victims. Our eyes met, and a chill went through me. I hated everything about him. Unhappy memories flooded into me from the back of my mind where I had tried so hard to imprison them.

My confidence was shattered. I grew nauseous, and stumbled. Sormir caught me and held me for the last few minutes of the ride. We arrived back in the garage of the Training Center, and he helped me down from the chariot.

"Are you alright?" Sormir asked, still not letting go.

"I'm fine," I said, not wanting to talk about it. He took the hint and dropped the subject, walking over to his friend from District 8 again.

The upper districts' chariots had arrived several minutes ago, and the elevator had already taken them up to their floors. This left district 7 and all of the districts below that to wait in the garage for a while. I took this opportunity to meet Districts 11 and 12 in person. I didn't want an alliance, but the more friends I had here, the better. I approached them as they got off of their chariots.

"Hey, hot stuff, what's your sign?" purred the immature, perverted boy from 11 when I arrived. This struck me as quite funny, since he was so small, and probably even younger than I was.

His district partner stepped in front of him and said, "Sorry about Dallas. It's best to ignore him. I'm Ebony Willow, by the way."

Dallas made a pouty face and stood quietly until the tributes from 12 approached. Dallas then took the opportunity to try out another one of his pick up lines.

"Are you from Tennessee?" he asked the confused girl, "Because you're the only ten I see!"

We stood in an awkward silence, since none of us knew what "Tennessee" was. The boy from 12 succeeded in making things even more bizarre, by asking, "What do you kids think the best way to gut someone with a knife would be?"

Thankfully, the arrival of the elevator prevented anyone from trying to answer this. We all piled into the small space, and the person at the front hit the buttons. I had grown used to the strange lurching sensation by now, but the jolt at every floor did nothing to help my growing feeling of nausea. The elevator had only the six of us left when panic started closing in on me.

The door opened to the tenth floor, and I managed to hold back tears for long enough to run to my room and close the door. I sobbed as I pulled off my costume and tugged on some pajamas. I crawled into bed without washing my make up off. The story came back to me, the story that no one knew, not even my foster parents.

_ Fourteen years ago, President Snow went on a political tour of the districts. After staying the night in District 10, one of the Justice Building attendees discovered that she was pregnant with a baby girl._

_ She kept it a secret, fearing for her child's life, but eventually it began to show, and people started guessing. Snow found out, and wanting to avoid a scandal, he ordered for both the mother and the daughter to be killed. _

_ The woman gave birth and had no choice but to give the baby to the District orphanage, with a note, explaining everything, that was to be given to the girl on her 13__th__ birthday. The child had only a first and middle name, because the Peacekeepers would be able to track her down otherwise._

_ The next day, this woman died in a "work accident", but the baby was never found. The Peacekeepers lied to Snow, saying that both targets were dead. The girl grew up, and learned about this, but she never told anyone, and eventually learned to live around it._

Her name was Hayley Thalia.

**How was it? Remember, this is the last chance to submit your character's special weapons! I still need Lysemet's and Sophie's weapons. If you don't submit them, they will not get the bonus in the arena!**

**Thanks to the people that reviewed last chapter:**

**BloodRansom**

**Bear Juice**

**Fuzzycat901**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Jayfish**

**Esse Quam Videri**

**Jazzy Pseudonym**

**Liveera**

**DEDEBUG9**

**Mystery muffin**

**MHM616**

**Hayley Thalia**

**Aquacupcake**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**We passed 50 reviews! Thanks to all of you guys. It's really awesome to know that people are reading and enjoying the story, and I hope you all know how much I appreciate you. Your characters are all awesome, and I have so much fun planning all of their stories and making alliances. I thought you might like to know that all of the alliances have been worked out, and I will write about them soon!**

**See you next chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	9. Author's Note

**Hey, you guys, I just want to apologize. I know it's been over a week since I last updated, and most of you have probably given up on the story. That's okay, but I wanted to let you guys know that I haven't. Here's my long list of excuses for why I haven't been publishing.**

**School play**

**Computer broke**

**Lots of projects**

**Midterms**

**Thanksgiving break**

**I became a beta reader *Yay!***

**Lost my notebook where I keep the rough drafts of my story**

**My beta reader has been busy**

**Spent too much time making lists… oh.**

**So as you can tell, I have had a lot on my plate, and writing has not been up as high on my priorities as it should be. I just wanted to let you all know why I was late.**

**But all is not lost! I have four points of view first draft-ed, and they are in progress. My beta reader is almost done with the first two. I'm not going to give you an estimated update time, since so far they have proven to be unreliable. **

**Since I'm making lists, I thought you might want to know why it takes so long to update between chapters, other than the reasons above. This is my writing process, feel free to ignore it. Oh, and I put up the time each step takes, as well.**

**Talk with the character's author- a few hours**

**Get inspired- days or more**

**Write the rough draft on paper- 1-2 hours**

**Type the second draft- about a day**

**Have sarahhaley beta read- about 2 days**

**Type the final draft- 1-3 days, depending on how my computer is feeling**

**As you can see, I put a lot of work into each chapter, but the result is a slow updating system. I often jump around and write parts of the arena as well, and the bloodbath and the arena itself are already done. So I don't want you guys to think that I have quit the story, even if I am slow. **

**Thanks for being such awesome readers.**

**See you next chapter!**

**Lightning4022**


	10. Training Day 1 Part 1

**Here is the first part of the first day of training! Sounds fun, right? Well we've got at least four chapters of this to deal with, so get out your snuggies, pop some popcorn and prepare to be glued to the iNSaNe WoRLD of mediocre pre-arena SYOT! **

** Griping aside, these chapters have actually been quite fun to write and I have been breaking the monotony of this by organizing the entire time in the arena, and figuring out what happens! It is going to be amazing, so once we get past these preliminary stuffs, the real fun shall begin!**

** The training will be written through eight characters' points of view. These two characters POV's are during the first half of the training day. This is the time when all of the alliances and special weapons are being sorted out, so pay attention to these chapters. Even if your character's POV is not featured in this section, they will almost certainly be mentioned several times. And you will get to meet your tribute's allies.**

** Oh, and my dear friend Bear Juice wrote a song about Mary Sues, that I thought was too delicious not to share with all of you. It is to the tune of "Miss Mary Mack." Bear Juice invites you to sing along.**

_**Miss Mary Sue, Sue, Sue,**_

_**All dressed in black, black, black, **_

_**With silver hair, hair, hair, **_

_**All down her back, back, back,**_

_**She's super strong, strong, strong,**_

_**And very fast, fast, fast,**_

_**And really sexy, sexy, sexy,**_

_**So she will last, last, last.**_

** Thanks to Jayfish and RainbowsEndInGold for this chapter's tributes, everyone else for the other tributes in the chapter, sarahhaley for being the awesomest betareader ever, and Lucius Knox for your evil child-killing, arena-making genius power. Oh, and of course Bear Juice for your amazing songwriting talents.**

**Lara Moriss- District 1 Female**

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, still on my training schedule from back in District 1, throwing off the itchy goose down comforter and leaving it on the floor for a servant to pick up later. The Chariot Rides last night had been _amazing,_ even though my dazzling outfit hadn't been as… sexy as I had wanted. I had made it clear to my stylist that it was not any good. He had thrown away all of the outfits that he had previously made for me, and tearfully promised that he would make better ones to wear during training and the interviews. This calmed me, because I knew that staff always had to be in their place, doing whatever was best for _me. _

He did come through today by replacing the regular, bland training tracksuit for sexy black running shorts that showed off my well-toned legs, and a blue, shimmering tank top that brought out my eyes and accentuated my breasts. This ensemble was hanging in my closet, ready to wear after just a night of preparation. I looked at it with a critical eye, and finally decided that it would do.

I had an hour until the rest of my lazy district team would wake up, so I took the time to shower, straighten my hair, and apply a layer of makeup. Some people were under the idea that vanity was pointless during training, but they are sadly mistaken. They don't realize how much of the Hunger Games are about impressing the other tributes and Gamemakers.

After I was satisfied with my look, I put on the tight-fitting training clothes and paused for a moment to admire myself in the mirror. I looked very attractive, and knew that there would be no challenge in getting all of my allies wrapped around my finger. One look at me, and they would be jumping in front of me to take arrows and swords, just so they could bask in my presence.

I walked down the hideous shag carpet hallway to the living room and turned the TV on to watch a recap of the Chariot Rides. I paid close attention to my allies' faces and body language, trying to decipher them by the way they acted on camera and how they had seemed when I talked with them last night.

My district partner was way too young and small to be a competitor in the Games, in my opinion, but he seemed easily manipulated, and I figured that having a trusting meat shield in the Arena would end up being helpful.

The boy from 2 wasn't weak or ugly, but he reminded me too much of my boring boyfriend back home, and wasn't very attractive to me. The guy from 4, on the other hand, was _hot._ He had this sexy, dark, mysterious aura that made me forget everything about my previous, boring, boyfriend. I've been told that I care too much about men and not enough about winning, but isn't the whole point of the life of a Victor to meet hot guys? That's what I would want, anyways, and I planned to start that life before the Games even began.

Besides, my old boyfriend and I had never had anything special, I thought to myself, seeing my next future lover's sexy, shirtless Chariot costume on the TV. I wanted to be allies with this guy. I remembered his name from yesterday: Xander Arlen. Lara Arlen didn't sound too good, but I had always wanted to change my name to something more alluring and exotic, so our wedding would be a good time to switch. I had the whole week to cast my spell on Xander, and I knew that it was going to be fun.

The other trained girls, however, could be a problem in our relationship. The girl from 4 was a tiny young thing that couldn't compare to my extraordinary beauty, but the girl from 2 unfortunately came close. Fortunately, she was too "special" to ally with the rest of us and had chosen to play the Games alone. She had told us that this was just part of her strategy, but I knew that it was really just because she was jealous of me. After all, who isn't?

There was another tribute who claimed to be trained this year, Resha from 5. I would have to keep an eye on her, since she was almost as gorgeous as I. I would just have to outshine her in every way possible, starting today, with my training outfit that would surely be much better than hers.

As the recap of the Chariot Rides went on, I noticed several other hot guys, but none as gorgeous as Xander. I would have no issues killing these guys, although I might not enjoy it as much as watching the other girls die.

My mentors entered the dining room across the hall, and I followed. Amy was my district partner, Hector's, mentor; a pretty red-headed woman that looked about 25 years old. She seemed to hate the time she spent in the Capitol, and I noticed that she hadn't spent the night in the Training Center when we first arrived.

Mymentor, Craig, was a fat, ugly, bumbling fool who offered absolutely no help to me. I had already decided that he was to be ignored at every possible turn. I began this when Hector arrived, and the mentors started talking about the day ahead.

I stood up and strutted over to the breakfast buffet with my nose in the air, snatched a plate and fork from the servant, and piled a stack of pancakes, fruit, and syrup onto the plate. My initial plan was to eat the food, but after seeing Craig's unbrushed bird's nest of hair in my peripheral vision, I got a new idea, and decided to show Craig what I thought about his "help."

I marched back over to the table, but turned before I reached my chair and approached Craig instead. I held the plate high above his head, turned it upside down, and let go. The pancakes slid down his face and landed on his large belly, while the plate bounced off the chair and shattered into tiny pieces.

I turned on my heel and skipped out of the room and into the elevator, leaving the servant to clean up the mess. I pressed the button marked "T" for Training Room, and was smoothly lowered to the basement. I smiled at the thought of Craig wiping syrup and bits of fruit off of his gray shirt, and hoped he got the message of who was the superior here.

The doors opened, and I stepped into a room full of weapons, dummies, plants, targets, and best of all, a table where the Gamemakers sat to observe the tributes. I gave them a wink, causing several to blush, and smoothly walked around the large room, familiarizing myself with all of the equipment. This spread was even more impressive than the training school in District 1.

The elevator let out a 'ding' and its doors opened, presenting the first wave of tributes. Most of them were unimportant weaklings, but I did see the pair from 4 in the crowded group. Xander had a small smile on his face as he looked around, and his dark, sexy eyes lit up when he saw the weapons. His district partner did much of the same thing, and I knew that I would have to play nice with her if I wanted to get to Xander.

I sauntered over to them, knocking over a few other tributes on the way, and greeted Xander, brushing my hand against his cheek and batting my eyelashes. He backed away, alarmed.

"Uhm… uhm… I… uhm… haveagirlfriend," he stuttered.

"That's okay, I have a boyfriend, but what happens in the Capitol, stays in the Capitol. Meet me on the first level tonight, m'kay?" I purred seductively.

The elevator brought another batch of children down to the Training room, interrupting our engaging conversation.

I knew that Xander was in love with me already.

The rest of my allies had arrived. Hector walked past me with an angry glare. Menelaus, the boy from District 2, and Resha, the girl from District 5 were now here as well, having all just piled out of the elevator with several other tributes. We had introduced ourselves last night, and now it was time to begin training, and keep our skills honed.

I noticed the other two girls in the alliance eyeing my cute little training outfit jealously from under their frumpy grey tracksuits. I gave each of them a small smirk as we walked over to the weapons stations.

Menelaus from 2 and Axeley from 4 both chose heavy looking maces from the weapon selection, and went off together to discuss tactics and mutilate dummies. Hector found a spear and began sparring with a Capitol trainer, who was not skilled enough for him. The trainer went down in a couple of seconds, with a sharp, pointy spear aimed at her throat.

Xander grabbed a trident, and after weighing it in his hands for a moment, he hurled it across the room, where the three prongs found their marks in a dummy's eye, heart, and stomach.

Eyes from all around the room turned to see this; everyone with some sort of reaction ranging from my impressment to a young girl's fit of terrified tears. After a few minutes, everyone returned to their own training, and after congratulating Xander, I went to the long-range weapon station.

I grabbed a set of throwing stars from one of the trainers, throwing one after another into the bull's-eye of a nearby target. Resha from District 5 then joined me at the station, retrieved my stars, and handed them to me with a nod, and the hand motion that meant "hold your fire" in training sign. She then proceeded to grab a sheath of throwing knives, and one-by-one matched them in the exact holes on the target that my stars had made only a few moments before.

"Not too bad for a 'barely trained weakling from the poor districts,' eh?" She asked, referencing one of my derogatory comments from the night before. Under normal circumstances I would have replied with a slap to her face, but I knew that she was just jealous of my outfit. I was the better person, and acting like it would just bother her more.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I guess I really was wrong about you. That was really impressive," I gushed. Flattery is the quickest form of manipulation, and since she seemed to be scrambling for a place in our alliance anyways, I could benefit from earning her trust. Then, if things turned sour with everyone else, she would be fighting on my side. "Can you teach me how to throw like that?" I asked.

"Sure, if you promise not to use my own lessons against me in the arena," she replied. We laughed awkwardly for a moment, since both of us knew that I wouldn't make that promise, even if I could.

We spent the last few hours of our morning teaching each other the basics of our weapons. Two girls came over to our station, and we scared them away by brandishing weapons and growling, giggling together after they retreated. We also spent plenty of time talking about the hot guys here this year, and eventually started talking about our own lives at home, and what the districts were like. The morning went on, and I began to see her as more than a pawn.

For the first time in my life, I was actually having fun.

** Sophie Descartes- District 9 Female**

The bright morning sun peeking through my open window woke me up. I felt a moment of disorientation before remembering that I was still in the Capitol, training for the Hunger Games.

Despite what everyone I had met had said, I honestly didn't see any problem with the Capitol. The food was delicious; the people were interesting; even the tributes this year seemed mostly sane. My parents had always managed to prevent me from watching the Hunger Games, sending me to my room during the required viewing time, but I had heard the horrific stories about gruesome, televised deaths at school, and nobody had ever dismissed these as mere fiction. This had given me a gnawing sense of fear about what lie ahead, and with many more questions than answers.

The cheery district escort, 'Tallulah with three l's and an h,' as she called herself, knocked on the door and chirped to me that it was time for breakfast. I ran a brush through my frizzy hair and found a tracksuit and sneakers hanging in my closet. I tugged them on and went down the hallway to where Tallulah, my district partner Zenith, and our mentor Alonso were waiting.

Alonso was a kind man in his late thirties, and also happened to be our district's only victor. He had been charged with the awful task of mentoring tributes, year after year after year. The stress of seeing so many children die was obviously getting to him, and he often drifted off into his own world during a conversation, and could only be dragged back into the realm of reality by Tallulah. The two had worked together for many years and become very close, and rumors had spread around the district that they were getting engaged.

The two of them got up from the table and headed to the buffet, and Zenith and I followed. We took plates and utensils from a silent servant who served us. She stared at the pancake breakfasts on our plates with longing eyes. I noticed that she looked horribly underfed, and took the risk of slipping her a pancake under the table. She smiled and winked at me, and then hurried back to the kitchen to eat in secret.

I casually walked back to the table, where Tallulah and Alonso were staring reproachfully at me. They had already told me that interacting with the servants was prohibited, after a similar incident on the train involving a whole plate of chicken.

I ate my food, ignoring their glares and pretending that nothing had happened. We ate in an awkward silence for several minutes, until the same servant arrived to clear our plates. She looked considerably happier, and I was proud that I had finally done something a little bit courageous. These kinds of things were what made me trust in humanity's ultimate goodness, and gave me confidence that peace would prevail in the arena.

I had shared this philosophy with the rest of my team earlier, but none of them liked it very much. Zenith had snorted and sarcastically said, "Let me know how that works out," and Alonso and Tallulah had stared at me with pitying expressions. There _was_ one person that I had met that had seemed to appreciate my plan, a girl named Isabella from District 8. We had talked during the Chariot Rides when she accidentally mistook me for a young tribute like herself, due to my small stature and late-to-develop body.

After informing her that I was actually sixteen and dealing with the rounds of apologies and forgiveness that followed, we began talking about the Games themselves. One thing after another, she had promised to talk with me again during training. I think she was my ally, but I wasn't sure, and I was anxious to go downstairs and talk again. She seemed to have less trust in the world than I, but I liked it, because it made her remind me of my best friend back in District 9. This comforted me, and I hoped that Isabella would be trustworthy in the Arena.

"Time for you two to train up," said Alonso, "learn a little from as many stations as you can, and practice a weapon if you still have time. Find some reliable allies, and remember, you only have two days to train, so spend each minute wisely." With this, he led us to the elevator, bade us goodbye, and told us to press the "T" button. He waved as the doors closed, and we began to drop down.

I hated elevators, actually, I hated the feeling of falling at all. I closed my eyes, bearing the sickening feeling as best as I could. The drop was cut short, however, by another stop, this time on the 8th floor. The doors opened and a boy stepped in, with Isabella close behind.

I waved, and she noticed. "Hey, Sophie!" she responded, "are you ready for training?"

"Yeah," I said, glad that her mood seemed to match my own, "I was thinking that we should hit the survival stations this morning. Sound good to you?"

"Sure," she replied, "but can we go to weapons training too? I don't want to fight, but we should know how, just in case."

I nodded, although I didn't agree with her. In my opinion, people always have a conscience, and I trusted in my ability to bring it out.

Our two district partners stood quietly in the corners of the elevator, and after stops at floors 5 and 6, we arrived at the Training Rooms. The two of them were the first to leave the elevator, followed shortly by the four other tributes. I saw the girl from 6 start up a conversation with Zenith and the boy from 5, and instantly felt better about allying with Sophie instead of him, now that he wouldn't be alone in the Arena.

Isabella grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the cluster of tributes surrounding the elevator, and I was able to see the Training Center clearly. On one half of the room, there were weapons, targets, and dummies with trainers on hand. I saw a tall, obsidian-haired boy pick up a three-pronged, deadly looking weapon and throw it across the room with almost superhuman power. The points sliced into a dummy, causing sand to gush out of its lifelike body.

This shocked everyone into the realization that most of us were going to die a gruesome death. One small girl even started crying, and had to be led away by a trainer.

We nervously went to the closest station, "edible plants," and attempted to learn anything that might come in handy during the Games. The trainer's instructions went over my head, but Sophie seemed to grasp the concepts. She was nodding enthusiastically and pointing at plants with strange names like "mango," "yarrow," or "nightlock," demonstrating their proper uses and dangers. This was wonderful, since someone in our alliance knew what they were doing, but I now hoped more than ever that she wouldn't betray me, since she had this advantage.

At the next station that we visited, a man taught us how to make traps with rope. I got the hang of it eventually, and soon moved onto more advanced work. We used a rope and a metal hook to latch onto things and climb around the room. I couldn't see how this would help us in the Arena, but I trusted his judgment. Plus, it was very fun, and I even noticed a few of the Gamemakers looking attentively in our direction.

This gave Isabella an idea. We wanted to show the Gamemakers that we were well-rounded, right? She probably figured that while we had their attention, we should do some weapons training.

She walked across the room to the weapons stations, and I followed. Out first stop was the long-range weapons section, where two menacing female tributes were throwing sharp objects at a dilapidated target. I nervously approached the trainer, who handed me a bow and quiver of arrows to try. The girls turned, snarling, and I dropped my bow, grabbed Isabella, and left. I had gathered that we weren't welcome.

I saw the two tributes chuckling as we sprinted to the next station, and we had also lost the Gamemakers' attention. I was ready to go back to the survival stations, but Isabella protested.

"We're going to have to defend ourselves in the Games. This isn't sunshine and daisies anymore, Sophie. We're going to_ die_, do you hear me? Come on. I don't want to lose you," she said, bursting my bubble and finally throwing me into the situation at hand.

I grumbled, and said that I would only go to an unoccupied station. This left the heavy weapons as our only option, and we reluctantly walked over to the trainer. She looked at Isabella with amusement when she tried to lift the heavy thing labeled as a "mace" and swing it at a dummy. The trainer took it, and showed her the correct way to hold it. The woman eventually gave it back, and Isabella took another try. She looked silly with the big weapon, but after about an hour of practice, she got the hang of it. The trainer put on armor and sparred with her until eventually she was able to hold her own for several minutes of combat without losing.

I chose not to train, still preferring a passive approach, and was rescued from the awkward time of explaining this to the trainer by the shrill sound of a whistle being blown. This signaled that it was time for the one hour lunch break. A door opened at the end of the training room, where tributes began filing into this new space.

There were buffet tables lining the walls of the spacious room, with several circular tables spread out around the center. The trained tributes immediately pushed several tables together, claiming their territory by making one gigantic table for everyone in their temporary alliance. The boy with dark hair that we had seen earlier took the head of the table, glaring at everyone and striking fear in all of our hearts. I turned away and began observing the other tributes, trying to decide where to sit.

As I went to the buffet table to get food, I noticed how strange the groupings were this year. District 3 was the only pair where the partners were sitting together, and many tributes were sitting with kids from completely different districts. Only a few people were sitting alone, one of them being the trained girl from 2.

Isabella and I continued this trend of abnormalities by bringing our steaming trays of food to a table occupied by my district partner Zenith, and his two allies from the elevator. I knew that if we could make friends with all of the tributes, everyone would realize that fighting wasn't necessary, and we could all live in the arena peacefully. Now was as good a time as ever to start.

"Hi! Can we sit with you?" I asked, putting on my most friendly face and gesturing to Isabella.

"Yeah, sure! I'm Lysemet, this is Kithell, and you already know Zenith, right?" said the girl from 6, rapidly introducing us. "What are your names?"

"I'm Sophie, and this is Isabella from District 8," I replied, sighing with relief that she had been so inviting.

We both pulled up chairs and began eating with the others. The five of us spent the rest of lunch enjoying our big meal of pasta, salad, and buttered bread, and talking about trivial things like the chariot ride outfits and what we thought of the other tributes.

"Where are your District partners?" I asked, realizing that Lysine's and Kithell's partners were nowhere in sight.

"Mine joined the upper district tributes. Awful, if you ask me. But that Amaryllis girl bailed out on their alliance, so the leader was fine with her joining. I'm just hoping that my connection to her might save me if they find me in the Arena," Kithell said with a grim laugh.

"Sebastian, my partner, has some sort of mental issue," Lysemet mentioned, "Complete loon, if you ask me. I feel sorry for him, but there's nothing I can do to save him. He allied up with the kid from 12, I think," said Lysemet, pointing at a table in the back corner of the room, where two boys were glancing around at the other tributes and cackling.

The rest of lunch continued in this manner. Pretty soon the hour was up, and we were herded back into the Training Room. We split up, the other three heading towards the weapons station while Isabella and I walked to a medicine station.

I realized that I was smiling.

**How was it? Please review! You all know what's coming up, right? CHRiSTMaS BReaK! That means (drumroll please) FASTER UPDATES! I have the next chapter, Amaryllis' and Isabella's training written, and it should be up soon! Thanks again to my betareader sarahhaley, and to everyone that reviewed!**

**Lupus Overkill**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**BloodRansom**

**Liveera**

**Jayfish**

**Aquacupcake**

**MHM616**

**Esse Quam Videri**

**Mystery muffin**

**Bear Juice**

**Hayley Thalia ROX**

**MissRandomGal**

**Fuzzycat901**

**Sean the Coruscater**

**You guys are so awesome! Thanks for your support and not giving up on the story! Also, this story hit 80 reviews! Yay! Shall we take it to 100? Is that a challenge? You Betcha!**

**See you next chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	11. District Industries

**Hello, guys, Lightning4022 here! I know you all are all sick to death of my authors' notes, but I just wanted to let you all know that my beta reader, sarahhaley, is editing the next chapter, and I am about 75% complete with the first draft of the chapter after that. So, we are progressing pretty well. These chapters will probably be up this week!**

**Of course, that is not the only reason I bothered all of your inboxes. This is the list of District/Industry that I use, as I started this story before the 'official' movie edition was up. I reference these industries a lot, especially during costumes.**

Luxury Materials

Mining

Electronics

Fishing

Electricity

Medecine

Lumber

Textiles

Manufacturing

Livestock

Agriculture

Coal

**There you go! **

**See you next *real* chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	12. Training Day 1 Part 2

ma

** Merry Christmas, everypony! I did get a netbook for Christmas, which means that from now on, my editing process will be a little bit different. Instead of writing the chapters on paper and then typing, I will just type and give to sarahhaley to edit. This means less paper, less time, and less hassle! Yay! Anyways, I also just got an XBOX, so I will be wasting my time playing Portal as well. I will try to drag myself to the computer to work, but I'm not making any promises as to when the next chapter will be up. I was VERY bored the other day, and instead of writing, I ended up drawing ALL of the characters of this SYOT! They look cool. I'm done rambling.**

** I thought you people might be amused by this short conversation that occurred between a friend and me the other day. I apologize for the swearing. Oh, and I used our pen names, of course.**

_**Bear Juice- Now we both have manipulative bitches!**_

_**Lightning4022- Umm… last time I checked, I don't have any bitches.**_

_**Bear Juice- *Facepalm***_

_**Lightning4022- OH! You were talking about our SYOTs!**_

**I'm so smart sometimes… anyways…**

** As you may notice, the second girl in this chapter is Isabella, Sophie from last chapter's ally. Don't be confused, as I am certainly not copying my own plotlines. This is just a continuation. I will always make notes of this when stuff like this happens.**

** Thanks to Blood Ransom and Aquacupcake for this chapter's tributes! Thanks to my coolest betareader EVER, sarahhaley, and to my Head Gamemaker, Lucius Knox, for ripping out all of the pages in my writing notebook. Jerk. Oh, and thanks to everyone reading this for being awesome and keeping me going! **

** Amaryllis Boste- District 2 Female**

_Finally,_ I thought, _lunch is over. No more stares from people who were curious about why the girl from District 2 wasn't sitting with the other trained tributes._ All of them were morons. They didn't seem to realize that there was more to winning the Hunger Games than fighting and killing. _Stupid fools. They didn't stand a chance, especially not with me in the Arena as well. _There was an art to survival, and I intended to learn it without them.

After turning down Xander Arlen's invitation to join his band of mindless minions, the tributes had ridiculed me, although some had been doing it less covertly than others. I knew that they would mark me as a threat in the Arena, and I would have to be on my toes for whatever they threw at me.

Thankfully, I already knew several ways to kill someone with a spear. Unlike the others, however, I planned to use the training days usefully rather than wasting my time flaunting my skills in front of everyone.

I completely ignored the weapons training area, where the slut from 1 was already sauntering around in that hideous outfit with her "allies." They were all going to turn on each other quickly; yet another reason I wasn't teaming up with them. Instead, I continued on to the camouflage station. The instructor looked surprised to see me. I could tell that she didn't expect to see anyone at her station, much less an upper district tribute. I ignored her surprise and told her to show me what I needed to learn.

We spent the next hour learning how to find natural things, like mud and branches, and turn them into disguises for shelters, supplies, and even myself in the Arena.

A full hour passed without interruption, and I had learned as much as I possibly could. Two tributes, a male and female, arrived, and the instructor started the lesson over again for them. I gave them a curt nod, and moved on to another station.

Three tributes were leaving the fire building station together, and I saw the instructor rearranging his supplies for another lesson. I jogged to his station, and was joined by a pair of tributes that I recognized as District 3. They appeared to be very intelligent, already asking the trainer a few basic questions. They also seemed completely unfazed by me, and I looked forward to taking this class with them. The girl introduced herself as Campry, and the boy as Binar.

Binar immediately grabbed a pile of supplies when the instructor had his back turned, and began tinkering with the pile of wood until it made a haphazard tower.

"Binar does that a lot," Campry explained when she saw my confused expression, "Sometimes I think he has enough brainpower to lift Panem off of the face of the Earth,"

The instructor turned to hand Campry and Me piles of wood, as well as some rocks and a box of sticks with red tips on the end. I had no idea what these were for, but Campry was struck with recognition. I tried to mask my wonder, not wanting to appear savage, as she pulled out a stick and struck it against the side of the box.

I watched in awe as a small tongue of flame appeared where the red end piece had been, and burned its way down the stick. She calmly blew it out before the flame reached her fingers, and then set the charred stick down on the cold floor.

"How does that work?" I asked the trainer curiously. He shrugged, and Binar answered.

"There is phosphorous in the tip of the match, and when combined with the heat created by friction between the box and the match, a chemical reaction occurs, igniting the phosphorous, and voilà, burning match," he said quickly, as if it would hurt him to leave the process unexplained.

I nodded, with absolutely no idea what he had just said. Campry seemed to understand him, and I didn't want to appear stupid in front of these people.

The lesson began, the instructor showing us how to build a fire by assembling the wood pieces. He told us where we could find wood in the Arena and which type to burn before finally telling us how to actually light the fire.

First, we used matches, but we eventually moved on to using materials called "flint and steel" to ignite the fire. This all took several hours, and by the time we were finished, I only had time left for one more lesson.

My eyes drifted across the various stations, and I decided that I had learned enough survival techniques for today, and my head already hurt from learning so much. It was time to prove to the other tributes that I was just as good as, if not better than, them with weapons, and give my mind a well-deserved break.

I walked to a station with an amazing assortment of spears and tridents, and chose a spear that weighed similarly to mine at home. The boys from 1 and 4 were already at the station, dripping with sweat as they continued practicing their weapons, as they had been for the whole day.

I waved away a trainer who approached me, and readied my spear the way I had been practicing for years and years. I lifted it, tensing my arms, deepening my breaths, and aiming, and finally threw at the mark. The spear struck just a few inches away from the bull's-eye, and I ran to retrieve it. I heard the two boys snickering behind me at my imperfect shot.

What I lacked in accuracy, however, I made up for in power. As I struggled to pull it out of the outer fabric of the target, I observed that the tip of my spear had poked through the back of the target. If the target had been a person, they would've been instantly killed.

District 1 and 4 were now trying to look unimpressed as the trainer congratulated me, and I watched their faces pale as I grinned at them. I walked past, set down the spear, and continued on to the sparring section.

I picked up a shorter spear and began battling with an instructor. I was much better at throwing than melee fighting, and my opponent and I were evenly matched. He, however, had been training other tributes all day, and eventually grew tired. I left to give him a break.

The clock on the wall beside the Gamemakers' table read 5:54. My mentor had informed me this morning that training would end at six, so I figured that there was no point in starting anything else. I made my way over to the elevator so I could be the first to get on.

Working and training today had been hard, and quite honestly, my head hurt from learning all of these new things. I leaned against the wall by the elevator, closing my eyes and letting out a breath.

I had been preparing for the Hunger Games for most of my life and knew that I needed to win. My mom and brother had poured all of their time and resources into sending to me to my death, and the most bizarre part of it all was that I was okay with it. But why? Why risk everything, just for a minute of glory?

I sunk down on my knees, wishing that I had come to this realization a week ago, back when I could've opted out of volunteering and lived a solitary life of poverty. _There was no going back anymore, and I was going to have to become a killer to return home._

I straightened up and put on a cruel, hopefully intimidating face as a tall, lanky girl sauntered over to me. She looked like she had worked hard all day, and she sat down tiredly, her intense gaze calculating me. It was kind of unsettling, and I pretended not to notice her.

"Having a great day, huh, girlie?" she said mockingly. I let out a sigh and turned away. She continued, seeing the dejected look on my face, "Games not shaping up to be as impressive as you'd hoped? Realizing that that you're not special, that you aren't some elite hero, just another tree, waiting to be chopped down like the rest of us?"

It was odd, as if she had read my mind. I turned around and glared at her, searching for a retort. The problem was, she was completely correct. Her words pierced through the fog that I had been creating over myself ever since I had started training. I was both thankful and horrified because of this new clarity.

I was saved by the _Ding_ of the elevator.

We both stood up and went inside, pressing our floors while waiting for more tributes to pile inside. She pressed 7 and retreated to the farthest corner. I pressed 2 and waited for everyone to arrive, avoiding the girl's cold gaze by staring at the buttons.

Binar and Campry stepped in, and I pressed 3 for them, still trying to avoid the girl. Two more boys walked in, and pressed 8 and 10 after nudging me aside. The elevator was now quite crowded, and I was relieved when the last tribute to enter pressed "close door."

My stop came first, and I elbowed past everyone to the open door. As soon as I stepped out onto my floor, the elevator doors closed behind me, and the other tributes whirred upwards. Hopefully, I would never have to see the girl again.

My mentors were waiting in the living room, talking. Our escort was nowhere to be seen, presumably changing her hairstyle or applying yet another layer of makeup.

The mentors' names were Julie and Milan, and since my district partner, Menelaus, and I had obviously requested to be mentored separately, they had split up, Julie taking me and Milan mentoring Menelaus.

I didn't know that much about either of them, but Julie was very helpful, skipping all of the pointless flattery and chitchat, an instead giving me straight-up advice. It was her idea for me to go to the survival stations today, and that plan had worked well.

The elevator let out another _Ding_ and Menelaus stepped out of the cluster of tributes in the elevator and into the hall. He immediately turned and entered the dining room. I followed, suddenly realizing how hungry I was. Julie and Milan were right behind me, and the four of us grabbed plates. Servants brought out trays filled with juicy steaks, rolls, potatoes, green beans, and finally, sweet, orange custard in delicate glass bowls with beautiful candy flowers decorating the tops. I ate until there was no more space in my stomach, leaned back in my chair, and let out a deep sigh.

"How did training go?" Milan asked to both of us.

"Pretty well. I defeated 6 of the Center's best fighters," boasted Menelaus, "and all of my allies pretty much suck compared to me."

Julie let out a snort, trying not to spit out her water, and eventually regaining her strategic air. "And you?" she questioned me.

"I trained in plants the first half of the day, and did fire building and camouflage during the second half. I met the pair from District 3. They are definitely a threat. I'm going to have to take them out A.S.A.P." Julie nodded, clearly impressed.

I also wanted to tell her that I was confident in my ability to defeat the other trained tributes, but that would have to wait until a time when Menelaus wasn't listening.

The servants cleared our plates and refilled our water glasses.

The District Escort stumbled drunkenly into the room, looking like a complete mess, and croaked out, "What did I miss?" We all exited the room, completely ignoring her, and she sank down in a chair, demanding some vodka and dinner.

The four of us split up, heading to our rooms for an early night's sleep. I had worked all day and was physically and emotionally exhausted. My head was swimming and scrambling to remember the difference between honeysuckle and thistle, how to weave a shelter out of vines, and every other confusing bit of information that might come in handy in the Arena. I wished for a moment that I had chosen the simple path of a large alliance, if only so I wouldn't have to memorize so much.

Once in my room , I pulled off my clothes and shoes and turned on the shower. There were many lavish soaps and water settings, and I spent a lot of time discovering what each one did, winding me down and relaxing me. But, as I washed my long, blonde hair, and realized that its excessive length could be a liability in the Arena.

I stepped out of the shower and dried off, searching through the cabinets for a pair of scissors. I found some on my bedside table and went back to the bathroom mirror. My head felt considerably lighter after my blonde curls were mostly gone. My hair now rested above my shoulders. It was by no means beautiful, but it was much more practical than it had been before. Besides, my prep team could re-cut it if they had an issue with its new appearance.

I brushed away a tear that had formed as I cut it off. My mother and brother both had the same color hair, and cutting it seemed like I was parting with them, too.

Reminding myself that it could mean the difference between life and death later on, I went into the bedroom, put on my pajamas, sank into a massage-armchair, and turned on the television. I relaxed and let the chair work its magic on the knots in my back muscles, while I watched the chariot rides that were being shown on the television _again._ The costumes blurred in my vision, and I slowly drifted off to sleep, District 7 being the last costume that I remembered seeing.

My dreams were filled with talking trees who were insulting me.

**Isabella Corde-District 8 Female**

Sophie and I left the cafeteria, separating from Lysemet, Zenith, and Kithell, who were going to weapons training now. They were all nice, but I preferred to be in a small alliance with just Sophie.

Many of the tributes had arrived before us, and several training sessions had already begun. The only stations that were still empty were Plants and First Aid. We had already completed Plants training this morning, and it had been boring and confusing, especially for poor Sophie.

"First Aid," we exclaimed simultaneously, bursting into a fit of childish giggles. We skipped over to the station, and warmly greeted the teacher.

"Hi, girls," she said, "I can teach you how to make tourniquets and splints, bind wounds, or perform CPR." The false cheer in her voice contrasted heavily with the disturbing premise, but it boosted our spirits, and for that, I was very grateful.

Sophie suggested that we make tourniquets, and since I had no real opinion on the matter, I agreed. As the woman fumbled through her kit for several minutes, pulling the correct materials, I grew impatient. Every minute lost during training was a chance at survival lost.

"Hurry up!" I snapped accidentally, but quickly apologized. The trainer got the rest of her materials, looking at me dissapointedly, and began teaching us how to correctly tie the material without causing any lasting harm to the appendage.

The lesson flew over my head, as I was still in an embarrassment-induced daze caused by my recent outburst. It wasn't like me to get so frustrated. The Games were already changing me, and I dreaded becoming a monster in the Arena.

Sophie was pure at heart, despite her age, and I knew that she would help me to stay myself. But, unlike her, I had already accepted the fact that I was going to die. Myself was all I wanted to be, if I couldn't be alive.

After the Reapings, when my mother, brother, and best friend came to say goodbye, I had told them to forget about me and move on, for my sake as well as their own. They had stayed strong for me, saying that they would, but it was clear that they would never really let me go.

I had attempted to do the same, and up until now, I had been successful. During my outburst today, however, I had cracked my own shell, and now feelings of sadness and loneliness came pouring out in the same way as the tears that trickled down my cheek.

I brushed them away before Sophie could see, and tried to shove my emotions back down into the black hole developing inside my tender heart.

I twisted the bracelet on my arm to calm myself. It was a present from my mother on my twelfth birthday, just last year; a braided bracelet made from scraps at the fabric factory where she worked. The chocolate browns and blacks of the material brought out my eyes and hair beautifully. I had tied it on that birthday, and hadn't taken it off since re-tying it whenever it fell off, with a stronger knot each time. I hadn't thought about my district token at the Reapings, but the escort had decided that this would be it.

This memory brought up a new wave of tears, and I had to fight to push them back into their jail cell. I locked the door, not wanting them to escape again.

Thankfully for the emotions, the lesson was over before I had time to throw away the key. Deciding where to go next gave me time to collect myself and resume the bubbly air that I had developed during the past few days. It gave _them_ a chance to plan their next attack on me.

"Is something wrong?" asked Sophie, noticing my still drying tears.

"No," I lied, and she didn't press any further. Everyone in the room was fighting their own internal war, and she didn't need to be drafted into mine.

We looked around the room, deciding where to visit next, when we were interrupted by the only tribute in the Games that was younger than I. Dallas Bond from District 11.

"Hey, lovely ladies, mind if I join the party?" he said with a grin, nudging up close to Sophie.

Sophie looked more disturbed than I knew to be possible. I, on the other hand, couldn't help but laugh. I had noticed this short little kid flirting with almost every girl in the Center, including the Trainers, but this was a new low, even for him.

Sophie took my hand and started walking away to the nearest station, which was, ironically enough, camouflage. Tried to follow, and we spent quite a bit of time ducking and weaving through the stations to get away from the little leech.

He eventually gave up the chase, and went over to the female trained tributes. Served them right for harassing everyone else.

We approached the nearest station, tracking, and were about to talk to the instructor when we were interrupted by Lysemet from 6's District partner, Sebastian. I barely noticed his smaller ally, until he stepped out from behind an instruction board. I remembered them cackling wildly during lunch, and immediately became wary, not wanting to trigger their insanity.

Sophie, in an attempt to be friendly, started a cheerful introduction. "Hello, I'm Sophie, this is Isabella. You're Sebastian, right?" She gestured to Sebastian, and then looked over at the other boy, puzzled. "I don't remember your name, care to introduce?"

Sebastian ran over to her and had her in a choke hold before the trainer could intervene.

"Who are you working for?" he snarled, "Who told you my name! Who was it?"

"Lysemet! She told me at lunch! I'm not working for anyone, I swear!" Sophie gasped out, gagging.

He seemed to believe her story. He immediately let go of Sophie as his face assumed a peaceful expression.

"I apologize," he said bluntly, "I thought you were a spy. My name _is_ Sebastian, and this is my ally, Micha Tolo from District 12."

The smaller boy nodded, slicking back his greasy, blond hair. His crooked teeth showed in an evil grin.

"It will be a pleasure killing you in the Arena," he growled eerily.

No one quite knew how to react to this, and we all stood awkwardly in the middle of the tracking station until the trainer finally arrived.

"What is going on, here?" He exclaimed, glaring angrily at Sebastian.

"Don't worry, we fixed it. Just a misunderstanding," stumbled Sophie, trying to risk offending Sebastian any further.

"Whatever. Just _get out _of my station if you don't want to learn anything about tracking," he replied, stalking away.

Sebastian and Micha left to go attack some trainers in the fighting station while Sophie and I approached the trainer again, politely asking if he could show us what to do.

He grudgingly agreed, grumbling to himself that he wasn't being paid enough to babysit us fools, but he eventually got to the points that we needed to cover. He showed us how to follow the paths of people and animals, but most importantly, how to cover up our own tracks so that nobody could find us.

We grasped the concept fairly easily. Using the various materials at the station would have been fun, in any other circumstance. Instead, it reminded me of where we were going in less than a week. I would have to savor the time I had here, not being constantly hunted.

We were all so engrossed in the tracking, and the trainer was even beginning to let up his grudge against us. Nobody noticed the ticking clock on the wall, or even the _Ding_ of the first elevator as our time in Training ended for today.

"Time to go," said the trainer, glancing across the room and noticing the tributes filing into the first elevator. He packed up his materials, ready to leave and go home to whatever family he had.

_Lucky man._

Sophie and I hurried across the room to the elevator, passing many other stations and tributes. We didn't make it to the elevator, however, and the doors closed without us, the elevator letting out another _Ding_ and whirring up to the floors above.

We sat down beside the doors, waiting for the elevator to return. Much to our misfortune, another massive alliance followed right behind us. I saw the tributes from 1, 2, 4, and 5 all approach, and upon seeing us, decide to have a little fun.

"Resha, aren't those the little wimps that ran away from us this morning?" Said the girl from 1, her makeup-heavy eyes narrowed. Resha, from 5, nodded fearfully. "Not scared of us, are you?" The girl from 1 continued, now talking to us.

The boy that I remembered being from District 4 stepped in front of her, interrupting her tirade. "Come on, Lara. Leave them alone. You can kill them in the Arena if they really offended you that much," he said. Lara backed down, starting a quiet conversation with someone else. I assumed that District 4 was the leader of this year's pack, and was relieved that he appeared to have a conscience.

Unfortunately, Sophie seemed to notice this as well, and decided to involve him in her hopeless mission for peace. "Hey," she said, drawing his unwanted attention back to us.

"Yes?" he said curiously.

"Umm… my name's Sophie. This is Isabella. Umm, thanks for helping us out there," she mumbled.

"I wouldn't call it _helping_," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well… it meant a lot to us. If you don't mind me asking, why did you join the Games? Can't you see that killing is wrong?" she asked rather bluntly.

This seemed to hit something inside him, and he ignored her, walking away to join his allies. I knew Sophie hadn't meant to offend him, but I wanted to make sure she didn't risk anything like that again.

"Sophie, you can't just go around talking to the trained tributes. They don't think like the rest of us. They truly believe that they need to kill, and some little girl won't change their mind. You're just risking both of our lives when you say things like that," I said, hoping to make her understand.

"Don't. Patronize. Me," she growled as the elevator arrived.

We all piled in, and I barely managed to reach the control panel and push the "8" and "9" buttons before being shoved to the back by the other tributes. I saw Sophie in the other corner in the same situation. She looked relieved when she saw that the button for her floor had been pressed.

The elevator stopped at all of the Upper Districts' floors, and the two of us were soon left alone in the elevator.

"You're right," said Sophie earnestly, "I need to accept where I am. Thank you for helping me realize that." She held me in a hug until the elevator stopped at my floor.

"See you tomorrow," I said, smiling and stepping out.

The elevator closed, and Sophie ascended to the floor above.

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. Dinner was composed of our escort, a man named Zeppelin, gossiping about the events of the latest party that he attended, and my District partner Ryan telling me about his new ally from District 10. Our mentor, Diane, was passed out on a nearby couch, presumably because of alcohol intake.

Our "help" team was totally useless, with bland stylists to top it off. To Ryan, this meant he had to try even harder to survive. To me, it meant that there was no chance at all that we would.

I picked at my dinner and excused myself. Once in my room, I showered and completed all of the formalities of preparing for bed, and finally curled up and cried myself to sleep.

**Now that that's done, let's take a moment to talk about reviews. Pull up a chair, get comfortable. You all good? Good. Let's chat. I know very well that I am a mediocre at best author, but all of the support I get from you guys makes me feel amazing. As a couple of you know, I was going through a really rough time in life a few months ago (I will spare you the details), but the community here was one of the few things that kept me going. All of your comments and praise made me feel really happy, as if I could do anything. I don't mean to get all mushy here, but I wanted all of you to know how much I appreciate you. **

**On a more analytical note, I would like to congratulate you all on having the highest number of reviews per chapter since the very first chapter of the story! 16 reviews for chapter 10, second only to 19 reviews for chapter 1! That's iNCReDiBLe, you guys! **

**Last chapter, I jokingly challenged you guys to 100 reviews before this chapter, with absolutely NO intention of getting anywhere near that. Much to my amazement, this story has, as of now, 101 reviews! Yayz! You have no idea how cool that is for me. Okay, I know I'm pushing it, but does anyone want to try for 125?**

**Also, for any of you wondering how to make an excellent, well rounded review, look at Sean the Coruscater's anonymous reviews in this review history. It gave some very useful critiques, and helped me to grow as a writer. This is a shining example of Constructive Criticism. Fantastic work, Sean!**

**In case you can't tell, I spend a lot of time looking at my traffic stats. This is my personal time for vanity, and I find it quite entertaining. You should try it! On that note, I present to you, LaST CHaPTeR'S ReVieWeRS-**

**Sean the Coruscater**

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**Okay, I know you're all sick of my author's notes. One more thing, though. If you don't have an account on FanFiction, I suggest you get one. It allows me to communicate with you and reply to your reviews as I love doing, but it also allows you to take credit for your wonderful characters or reviews, upload your own stories, and, best of all, FoLLoW YouR FaVoRiTe auTHoRS! Just a suggestion.**

**P.S. If anyone would like to help out a fellow SYOTer, MissRandomGal's story, the 54****th**** Hunger Games, is in dire need of male characters from Districts 1, 3, 5, 9, 10, and 11. I am her Beta Reader, and promised her I would get some assistance. We would be very grateful if any of you lovelies would submit a character! That is all.**

**See you next chapter!**

**Lightning4022 **


	13. Training Day 2 Part 1

**Je te presente le Premier Part de la Deuxieme Jour de Stage! (Just be happy this whole authors' note isn't in French.)**

**As you can tell, I was feeling particularly inspired (and bored) this week. So I wrote not one, but TWO chapters! These were really great to write, because some of my favorite characters were featured. I also have a particular liking for District 6, see my other story if you want more detail about that, and I had a cool idea with the mentors for this story. **

**In case you didn't realize, we are officially HaLF WaY DoNe with the Pre-Arena stuffs! Only 6 more chapters left to go! *Fluttershy YaY* This is so awesome, and I hope you all have been having as much fun reading this as I have been in writing it.**

**On that note, thanks to mysterymuffin and Lookingpastmysadness for this chapter's tributes! Thanks to my Head Gamemaker, Lucius Knox, and my betareader, sarahhaley. She gave up her Christmas break to edit all 21 pages of last chapter. That takes some real commitment. You go, Girl!**

**With that I leave you to enjoy the thoughts of Jairus Cooper and Lysemet Sprintyarrow. **

**Jairus Cooper- District 7 Male**

_Knock, Knock, Knock. _"Yoo-hoo! Helloooooo? Jaiiiiiiruuuuus? It's meeeee!" _Knock, knock. "Wake Up_!"

Somehow, Abelia had managed to make this morning terrible already. She had a talent for doing just that- turning perfectly wonderful things into awful crap. She seemed to like me, however, as I had been woken up in this cheery fashion for the past four days. _Had it even been four days?_ I had already lost count. My District partner, Elysium, was never treated like this by the escort, and I assumed she was playing favorites.

_Elysium._ The girl was a complete mystery to me. I had never seen her in the District, which was odd, because I knew _everyone._ But not her. And she had been forced to volunteer for my best friend Michael Pincince's younger sister, Allegra. When I tried to thank Elysium, she had ignored me, and she wouldn't tell me why she had volunteered.

She hadn't wanted an alliance, either. I had approached the subject, hoping she might want a helping hand. She ignored me at first, but eventually said that she was used to being alone, and she worked better that way. I left it at that, with no alliance.

As a matter of fact, I didn't have _any_ allies yet. I had planned to talk someone up yesterday and train with them, but I didn't have any promising leads. The girl from 12, Brandi, was my best bet, as she wanted an alliance too, and was constantly in the shadow of her maniacal District partner.

Normally, I wouldn't ally with someone from District 12, as they rarely ever make it very far, but Brandi seemed clever and strong enough. She was also quite pretty, save for a scar on her face. The Capitol's stylists had already proven that they could cover it up with makeup, however, and together we could get plenty of sponsors based on looks alone.

I had met Brandi during Fire Building training yesterday, and after a few awkward introductions, she managed to show me quite a bit about fire, being from the Coal District and all. One would think that I would have experience in the field as well, but my parents had been wood carvers, making the elaborate designs in tables and mantelpieces that the Capitol so desired. After my mother died, my father had tried to show my brother and me the family trade. James took it up much quicker than I, and my dad seemed glad that I had gone into the Games, and not the ever-talented James.

Unfortunately for me, I knew almost nothing about the woods, but I did know how to work with people. Not in a manipulating sense, just in a finding-out-what-people-want-and-helping-them-with-it sense. Speaking of people, Abelia's knocking on my door became more and more frantic as I daydreamed, her soft calls turning into screeches.

"_Don't make me break down that door!" _She shouted.

"Sorry, Abelia. I will be out for breakfast in a minute," I replied calmly.

This pacified her, and she went on to the next door to harass poor Elysium.

I tugged on a t-shirt and pair of pants from my closet, washed my face, and went out to join the others.

Elysium was sitting silently at the table, eating eggs and toast all alone at the table. From the look of her mostly finished plate, Elysium had been up for a while. She saw me, gave a half-smile, and returned to her food. I smiled back and went to the buffet table to get myself something to eat.

Abelia entered the room with our mentor in tow. His name was James, just like my brother. I hadn't said anything about this to anyone, but every time his name was mentioned, I cringed inside with loneliness. This James had won the Games last year at a mere fifteen years, and was our only mentor. He had done it with absolutely no help, as he hadn't had a mentor. Not that he was much help to me. He seemed to still be in the Arena, jumping at the smallest of noises and carrying a knife stolen from the kitchen in a sheath at his belt.

The two of them got some breakfast as well, James wolfing it down as if it was the last meal he would ever eat. Abelia attempted to start conversation but failed, seeing as Elysium and James were in their own scary worlds and I was focusing on the day ahead. She gave up, and after finishing her food, returned to her rooms. Elysium snapped into reality and left silently for the elevator. I quickly followed her, and pushed the button to go to training when the elevator arrived. The elevator was empty, and I assumed we were late for the second day of training.

I was right, and we descended, uninterrupted, to the basement. The doors opened to the now familiar Training Room. We silently stepped out and split up, me searching for Brandi. I saw her at the camouflage station, already beginning a lesson. I jogged over to join her.

"Hey, Brandi. It's me, Jairus. Remember, we did fire-building together? I thought you might have some useful tips for this, too, since you were so good at the last station," I said smoothly, smiling at her.

She seemed to recognize me as well, and returned the smile. "Yeah, sure! We're just getting started, come on!" The trainer was getting paints out of her bag, and upon seeing me, she smiled, pleased that people were taking her class.

We spent a great part of the morning painting away, making the patterns of different environments on ourselves, our "backpacks," and each other. It was quite fun, and we both were quite good at it after we received a few initial pointers from the trainer. My father would've been proud to see me now, my hands sculpting delicate patterns with mud and leaves. He had never been impressed with my carvings at home, but seeing the swirls and knots in the color as we painted our "shelter" to look like trees reminded me of home.

I could tell that Brandi was thinking of home as well by the distant look in her eyes, but neither of us approached the topic. The camouflaging was quite relaxing, and several hours passed without our notice. Another tribute approached the trainer, and she too seemed surprised when she checked the clock on the wall. We had only an hour before lunch, and Brandi and I washed ourselves off with a portable hose and pump, dried, and left.

"That was nice," she said, "where shall we go next?" Without saying anything, we had formed an alliance, and were now training together. I was totally fine with this, and Brandi clearly was as well.

"Weapons would be good. I don't have any training, and we certainly need to know how to fight if need be," I suggested. She nodded, and we took off across the room, side by side, to a fighting station.

"District 7, right?" a trainer said, handing me an axe. He seemed disappointed when I proved how inadequate I was with the thing by holding it backwards. He groaned, and picked out a sword for Brandi. Another trainer approached her, showing her the basics. My trainer grudgingly showed me how to hold, and eventually, throw the axe.

When I thought of it as learning the mechanics of the tool, just like with carving, it was simple, but when I thought of the target as a person, I couldn't bring myself to throw. My hand would tense, causing me to miss. This happened several times, until finally a trainer blew a whistle and the doors to the cafeteria opened.

"You're going to have to do better than that," he told me, "Come back after lunch and we'll try to help you with control. I've seen that happen with several tributes, but once you just think of it as a target, you should be able to kill swiftly and effectively."

I didn't know how to reply, so I nodded and waited for Brandi to finish talking to her instructor. She was told to come back as well. At least we knew how we were going to spend the rest of the day.

We entered the cafeteria through the small doors, and I noticed that Elysium was behind us. She waved, and I did the same.

"Who's that?" asked Brandi quietly.

"My District partner, Elysium," I replied, before formally introducing them. "Brandi, this is Elysium Oak. Elysium, this is Brandi Hahn from 12."

The girls exchanged 'Hello's,' and we all went to a buffet table, where we were served burgers by the Avoxes. Brandi seemed shaken by the silent servants, and she stumbled, almost dropping her plate. I held it, and Elysium used her arms to help stabilize her as we went to a table.

The table was a small circle, and we were all able to see each other while we talked.

"What's wrong?" I asked Brandi.

She seemed reluctant to talk at first, but finally told us what was bothering her. "My mother… they turned her into an Avox. I keep looking for her here, hoping she had the luck to at least be enslaved aboveground… I've heard horrible things about what happens to them… I… just… I thought the woman serving us our food was… you know... _her._ I was about to call out, but when she looked up, I could tell that she…. Wasn't. Now I don't know if she's even alive…" and with that, she burst into tears, attracting stares from nearby tributes.

Elysium patted her on the back, looking thoughtful. "Don't worry, honey. You'll find your mom. Don't worry." Tears were starting to drip from her eyes as well now, and they were picking up speed.

This was the first time I had heard her say anything substantial and I was amazed by her kindness. It seemed that this depressing reality check was all she had needed to snap her into the realm of reality.

After a few minutes of silent eating, she finally opened up to us as well, telling us what had brought her here.

"Brandi, I know how you feel. Both of my parents died a long time ago. I've been living on my own in the woods for years," she confessed. She turned to me, explaining, "Yes, that's why you didn't recognize me. Don't pretend like you did. I don't exist anymore, according to records. That's why the Peacekeepers made me volunteer. They caught me stealing food, and as you know, stealing is punishable by death. I suppose this was death sentence enough for them. Living alone was worse enough, but now that I realize that I was taking actually _being alive_ for granted…" She returned to silence, taking a bite out of her burger.

My problems paled in comparison to these girls', and I made a mental vow to help them get out in any way I could. The only problem was that Elysium obviously didn't trust me still, and telling us her story had created a mental rift between her and us. All I could hope for was that I wouldn't run into her in the Arena.

A whistle blew again and everyone began to leave. Elysium jumped up and left while Brandi patted her eyes dry with a napkin.

"Shall we go?" she asked with a smile.

"Indeed, we shall."

**Lysemet Sprintyarrow- District 6 Female**

"_Knock, Knock, _Lysemet. _Knock, Knock, _Lysemet! _Knock, Knock, _Lysemet!"

My District Partner, Sebastian Cole, woke me up like this every morning at Five O'clock so he would have someone to eat breakfast with. He was sweet enough, but I spent way too much time wondering what was wrong with him. He had told me on the first night on the train that he was a secret agent for President Snow, helping Snow to track down and kill a resistance leader in the Capitol.

I would have believed him, helped him even, if he hadn't said the part about resistance. I, too, had joined the Hunger Games because of rebellion, just on the opposite end of the spectrum. My district suffered the lash of the Capitol one of the worst of all, using us as test subjects for their ungodly 'medicines.'

Even as a baby, I had been subject to cosmetic testing that had left one eye green, but turned the other gray. This was nothing, however, compared with the people missing appendages, or animal traits grafted into their DNA. Our people were well fed, but this was merely the Capitol's way of mentally compensating for what they had done to us.

It was because of this that I had volunteered for the Games, leaving my mother alone to fend for herself. I planned on spreading the word to the Capitol citizens about what their cosmetics and medicines had done to our people. Maybe then, some glimmer of a conscience would show through in one or two of them, and we could start a rebellion. This idea had kept me going through the whole time that I was here.

I had convinced two male tributes, from 5 and 9, to join me. They seemed reluctant, with my rebellion plans and all, and it would be a lie to say that my looks played no part in getting their trust. Eventually, however, they had agreed to help me to survive, but Kithell from 5 didn't want to be associated with my other plans. He seemed intent on getting home to his family, too much so to risk it all with rebellion. His strategy was to fade back and let the other tributes forget him, and he had decided that Zenith from 9 and I would be able to do this as well.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been subject to much attention, volunteering and all, but I was overshadowed by my maniacal District Partner, who had been drawing eyes since the beginning of the Games.

Sebastian knocked on my door for a few more minutes while I tried to sleep.

"Go away, it's only five in the morning," I grumbled, throwing a pillow at the door. He gave up and left, and I lay there, trying to go back to sleep. I couldn't, and found that my mind was racing with thoughts about the day ahead. We only had two days to train, and this was the last. The thought of being in the Arena in just three days terrified most people, but I felt like I was ready.

Finally giving up on sleep, I showered, dressed, brushed my hair, and went to join Sebastian in the dining room. He was there, eating a plate of eggs and staring at the TV.

This was an early morning program, and having played nothing but the Chariot Rides for two days, they had moved back to commentary on the Reapings and who the fan favorites in the Capitol were so far. I got some food and joined Sebastian, since training wouldn't start for an hour anyways.

"Indeed, Augustus, some of these tributes look quite promising," said a purple-haired newscaster, "My bet for the Victor goes to fan favorite, Xander Arlen, for sure. He's got the looks, the skills, and insider sources say that he's taken the lead of the trained tributes already! Although, we will of course just have to wait for the interviews and training scores to be sure."

"I wouldn't be so confident, Cassia," countered Augustus, "that Lara Moriss looks quite the competitor to me, and after that magnificent chariot performance, she has sponsors in the bag."

"Now, now, quit your bickering," and older man said, "what about all of the volunteers this year? Nine in all, that's a new record! We're certainly going to have to ask them why they did it during their interviews!"

The newscasters were replaced by short clips of the tributes as they volunteered. The usual of the tributes from 1, 2, and 4. Oddly, the girl from 4 had been Reaped, although she looked trained as well. Then, Kithell's District partner Resha, Me, the girl from 7, and Sebastian's ally from 12 concluded this year's many volunteers.. I had to agree with the newscasters on this, it certainly was strange.

Sebastian looked at me questioningly when my volunteering was shown. I hadn't told him about my plans for rebellion, as he would probably rat it out to someone important. In fact, only Kithell and Zenith knew about the plans. Zenith had gone along with it, unlike Kithell. Zenith still seemed to be in shock from his Reapings, so I wasn't sure if he knew what he was agreeing to.

Before the newscasters could resume their degrading commentary, our mentors walked into the room and turned off the TV and silently sat down. They were our District's only victors, twins that had volunteered and won in two consecutive years. First Arnold, then his sister Tabitha. This was just a few years ago, but recently they had turned to drugs and had begun to deteriorate.

Our escort, Achilles, was disgusted by their habits and always complained about wanting a better district. The whole team put together was pretty much worthless, and I relied on myself to come up with a way to get in and out of the Games.

Achilles arrived shortly after the twins, and the whole thing was too overwhelming for me; the twins popping pills and Achilles groaning loudly about the calorie count of his breakfast. I excused myself and called the elevator. It arrived, and I decided that I would go to training now, and see if the employees would let me get a head start on the day. After all, what else was there to do?

"You're not allowed to be down here yet," said a male guard unemotionally as I stepped out of the elevator, now at the training floor.

As much as I hate using my looks to get what I want, I kind of had to now, since I didn't want to go back upstairs with the rest of my District team. I flirtatiously ran a hand through my hair and batted my mismatched eyes.

"Oh, come on. What harm could it cause to let little me in to train for a little bit? I need to make sure I can survive in the Arena and make it back to you lovely people in the Capitol," I said sweetly. The words stung my mouth as they came out, and almost every word was a lie. They had their effect on the man, however, as he quickly opened the door to let me pass.

"Have a good day, then. I'll certainly be rooting for you. Be careful today," he said happily, all too fooled by my act. He was clearly staring at my breasts as he said this, and it took all of my self-control not to punch him.

I passed him, my face turning to a grimace as I walked away.

The training room had already been set up, and instructors were beginning to arrive. The Gamemakers had congregated at their table and were talking amongst themselves and organizing papers, presumably records and statistics about us, the tributes of the tributes of the 37th Hunger Games. To them, we were just points of data to be analyzed and used to make future Games better.

One of them, a woman that clearly loved the cosmetics our District sacrificed so much to provide, judging by her purple hair and skin tone, saw me and called out.

"Hey, you! You're not supposed to be in here! How did you get in?" I pointed at the door with a smirk, and she turned away, obviously annoyed but not wanting to cause a scene.

I had fifteen minutes to kill before the rest of the tributes arrived. I looked around the room carefully, taking in the details and trying to figure out what this year's Arena would look like. Usually the survival stations prepared for a specific type of environment, so that we would die fighting rather than shriveling away by ourselves.

There were preparations for all types of worlds, however, and I stared in confusion first at tree climbing, then a setup that appeared to teach the proper way to hide in Desert sands, and lastly, a fishing station for open water. _What were they planning for us? _There was no point in speculating though, because I still had to figure out what I would do to rebel, now that I was actually here.

Yesterday, I had gone quietly from station to station, learning how to survive and fight, and most importantly, how not to be noticed, as Kithell and Zenith had wanted. Today, though, I would show the Gamemakers that I meant business.

I sat in a corner, planning what I would say to them. The clock ticked forward to 6:00. I was coming up with nothing, and began to fear that I had risked my life for nothing. I slipped into my own world as I grew more and more scared. My vision focused on the clock, and everything else grew blurry until it was the only thing I could see.

Slowly, the numbers on its' face turned into the faces of the tributes this year, the hour hand pointing almost directly at Sebastian and me. When the hour hit, we would both die violent deaths, and then the arms would continue to destroy, do nothing but destroy. The hands were the Capitol, and we were time at their mercy, being thrown away and wasted as the Capitol pleased.

My insanity now being fueled by rage, I ran over to the clock on the wall and threw it at the Gamemakers, missing the purple woman by barely an inch. She jumped back, alarmed, but quickly regained her composure.

"Why _ever_ would you do that?" she asked calmly, as if she truly didn't know.

This cracked me even further, and I stormed over to her, my face turning red, my mismatched eyes narrowing down to slits. My teeth were clamped together, but my mouth spat words of hatred onto her face.

"Do you have _any_ idea how much we go through for you ungrateful bastards?" I seethed, my face getting closer to hers as I spoke. The other Gamemakers were slowly backing away from the two of us. "Children starve. parents go missing. we are punished for crimes that we didn't commit. ungodly experiments are not just a part of daily life, they are considered _acceptable_! Only the richest of the rich get houses and education! And that's just in District 6. I could go on and on for _days _if I told you all of the horrible things that I've heard about from the other districts.

But how do you reward this unfair treatment of us 'lowly' citizens? Of course, you horrid people take twenty-four of our children and make them kill each other. Every year. Why? Because we rebelled against you. What makes you think we won't do it again? Trust me. We will." We stared into each other's eyes, my chest rising and falling as I caught my breath, my face turning from bright red to its usual shade of pale. With nothing more to say, I turned on one heel and walked towards the elevator to wait for Kithell and Zenith.

I knew I was safe from the Gamemakers' wrath until the end of the week, because it wouldn't do to have one of the tributes disappear before the Games even began. After that, I would be dead. But at least my message would have gotten across.

The first elevator arrived, bringing Kithell, Zenith, and a handful of other tributes. We walked directly past the Gamemakers' table, smiling at the purple woman. She shot daggers of ice at me with her eyes, but it didn't affect me. Zenith looked at me questioningly, but I didn't indulge his curiosity. I instead walked to the First Aid training station. This wouldn't help me at all, because I was now positive that Purple Woman was planning a very special death for me, but it would appease Zenith if he thought I was preparing as he was.

After spending a few hours learning how to perform CPR correctly, Kithell approached the weapons' training station, again passing the Gamemakers' table. I hoped my actions wouldn't bring down their training scores and diminish _their_ chances of escape, but a gut feeling told me that it would.

Kithell picked up swords and worked with a trainer, but I, not really in the mood for that, picked up a bow from a shelf. My aim was terrible, as it had been when I threw the clock, but after I tried imagining President Snow's face as the bull's-eye, my skill improved by quite a bit.

I looked over at the Gamemakers' table once more, and saw that an Avox was silently replacing the clock back on the wall. The Purple Woman looked content, as if this was one small victory for her.

I spent the rest of the morning going around the weapons sections, murdering the imaginary President Snow time after time. His father was the one who had taken over Panem and ruled during the Dark Days, and our current President would be succeeded by his son, Coriolanus Snow, and so on, in a never ending cycle of tyranny. Unless someone broke it… someone like me.

A whistle blew, signaling the start of lunch hour. I joined Kithell and Zenith at a table after getting food. I ate silently, listening to them jabber on and on about how well they were doing in sword training. They wanted to go back to the station after lunch, if that was okay with me. I told them that it was, and excused myself to the restroom.

After getting directions from an Avox nearby, I entered a door beside the kitchen and walked down a dimly lit hallway, looking for a sign, I turned a corner, and a piece of cloth was pushed over my mouth and nose. It reeked of a chemical that I remembered from the labs in District 6. Chloroform.

I woke up, staring into the beady eyes of Coriolanus Snow.

**Yeah! I wrote a cliffhanger! What happened to Lysemet? I hope you enjoyed reading! The next chapter will be up soon, with Micha and Ryan! I love writing the training chapters, because for me, seeing the characters interact with each other really brings the characters to life.**

** Just a side note here, if anyone ever has suggestions for the plot that they would **_**like**_** to see, just PM me, and we can talk. I have most of the plot figured out, but am always open to suggestions. After all, this is an SYOT. So, just let me know if you want something to happen. Not guaranteeing it will, but I'm open to pretty much anything.**

** Also, we didn't get to 125 reviews last chapter, but I didn't expect that to happen. I seem to have updated before everyone was finished reading and reviewing the last chapter… oh well. The list of people who reviewed is kind of short. Anyways, thanks to:**

** Fuzzycat901**

** Lupus Overkill**

** Trouilefou**

** It-was-enchanting**

** DEDEBUG9**

** Hayley Thalia ROX- thank you for that well-rounded review. The District 3 idea was very clever, and your advice was wonderful. It really meant a lot to me, and I wish that I could thank you personally.**

** I just wanted to thank all of you for your awesome reviews. Sean has definitely got some competition with you guys now for awesome reviewing skills. They were all helpful, well-written, and inspiring! As a matter-of-fact, they may have been what drove me to update so quickly!**

** Alright, so Micha and Ryan's chapter is being edited by sarahhaley now, and Menelaus and Sormir's Gamemaker sessions are being written right now. Expect them on Wednesday and Friday of next week! **

** Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed these characters' day of training! Just one more training chapter to go and six more chapters until the arena! Are you excited? Because I certainly am!**

** P.S., this may just be me trolling, but I wanted to know how old you all think I am. Since I've never actually put my age up on the site. I may tell you if you're right or not, but this is more for my personal data collection. Feel free to guess, if you're up for the challenge!**

** See you next chapter,**

** Lightning4022**


	14. Training Day 2 Part 2

**Hey, Lightning4022's back, with the Second Part of the Second day of training! The next two chapters are in progress, as well as the first day of the actual Games. Yay! Writing progress!**

**This is just a note about Micha's character. He is completely insane. Don't trust a word he says. He is 100% crazy, which is why I had so much fun channeling my inner insanity to write this. Actually, I enjoyed being in his character so much that I think I should be locked up in a mental ward. Or something like that.**

**Oh, and a funny story about Ryan's PoV. I started writing it with him waking up, and about three pages in, I realized that I was writing in the wrong time slot. When I went back to fix it, I noticed that I only had to change about five things, and none of them were major. I'm not sure whether this says a good thing or a bad one about my writing skills, but either way, I'm totally grateful. It saved me about an hour of rewriting. Just thought you might want to know.**

**Also, just in case everyone is wondering why all of the characters are slowly going insane, (First Elysium and Brandi, then Lysemet, now Micha and Ryan), it's because they're all about to die. Wouldn't you be a bit out of it if you were in their situation? Okay, I also admit. I love writing crazy people. It's one of my many flaws. **

**Thanks to MydniteShadow1996 and Aquacupcake for this chapter's tributes!**

**Micha Tolo-District 12 Male**

I chuckled inwardly. I stared down yet another young tribute. He slowly became lost in the crowd that was exiting the cafeteria. _He doesn't know what he's dealing with, _I thought to myself as I entered the training room with my ally, Sebastian.

Sebastian was an agent for President Snow. He was here to infiltrate the Hunger Games and look for Rebels. Sebastian had said that since he was an Agent, not a Tribute, Snow would pull him and any allies out of the Arena if things got tricky. Sebastian seemed reliable. I knew that if I stuck with him, I could not only kill, but I would be safe and comfortable after I was done. He had even told me that he would ask Snow if I could be trained as an assassin after the Games.

Everyone but Sebastian thought that the two of us were insane, but I was fine with that. For Sebastian, it was our cover. For me, it was a chance to intimidate all of the weaklings playing in the Games. It was just an act since I was not, and never have been, crazy.

My bloodlust caused alarm in District 12, even in my District Partner Brandi. But here in the Capitol, I was with people like me, who respected, even supported, my desire to see people scream at my mercy, to watch them die at my hands.

Sebastian had asked me why I volunteered when we first met. My family had all died of whooping cough last year. They were the only people I would ever miss. After that, I had lived on the streets of the Seam, killing families when their backs were turned. Partially for food and supplies, but more often just to fill the empty hole that had once been filled by my family. And when the Reapings came, I had an idea.

The tributes were always well fed and adored in a way that I had never been. As much as I would have enjoyed watching the selected male Tribute die on television, I decided that I would volunteer for him. This idea struck me right before as his name was being drawn, and I stepped onstage before was even read aloud, joining my District Partner for the 37th Hunger Games.

Brandi Hahn. This girl was a mystery. So sweet, so kind, crying about the Avoxes. Just the type of person I despised. She looked at me with loathing eyes every time we were in a room together._ Why did she hate me so much? _I often wondered. _It didn't matter anyways, since she was going to die. _I looked forward to killing her. I looked forward to killing everyone here. But I would have to train first.

Back at home, I had taken people by surprise with the knife that I always carried, relying on my animal instincts to protect myself from retaliation. But here, everyone was prepared to some degree. They were on their guard. This is why I had been training. With other weapons, of course. The Peacekeepers wouldn't let me take my knife with me as my token. I had stabbed the one who had spoken first. He was dead.

Dead.

Dead,_ dead_! Never to return! Just like everyone else in the room would be. Not Sebastian and I, though. We would return to the Capitol. I would be an assassin, actually getting _paid_ to do what I loved most. Killing.

Just the word sent shivers down my spine, readying me for a fight, lifting my spirits with the prospect of another death.

"Micha. Micha. Micha!" Sebastian shouted, dragging me to the weapons training station. Oh, how I loved these weapons. So beautifully crafted. So sharp. I felt sorry for the poor things, though. They would never see the blood of a person. They were just for training. Always practicing, waiting for their turn with death.

I walked over to a display of tridents and picked my favorite, a beautiful bronze instrument named Jeanette. After my sister. My sweet sister.

I looked across the room to a young girl, probably twelve or thirteen years old. I had talked to her in Training yesterday. She reminded me of my sister. I looked forward to killing her, finally avenging my poor Jeanette. A life for a life. That was my policy. I avenged death by introducing death to more lowly humans.

It was an endless cycle.

It was perfect.

I took my trident, Jeanette, and attacked a dummy with it, imagining the tribute as the body, stabbing out her heart. Her lungs. Her eyes. Her brain. I stabbed, backed up, threw, and stabbed again, and again, and again.

A trainer came up to me, replacing the dying target with another, this one much larger.

It was Sebastian. I practiced avenging my ally, just in case it ever had to happen. Sand was pouring out of Sebastian's body within minutes.

The trainer returned with another dummy. But I was done with dummies. I wanted to fight.

The trainer was a strong, tall man, but he wasn't wearing any armor. He was no match for me. The man was dead in a second. Jeanette was now stained with blood. She looked even more perfect now. She was happy. She had tasted blood, like she thought she would never be able to.

The trainer was still alive. I finished him off with one last blow to the brain, but not before he had managed to croak out a word.

"_Monster."_

I was no monster. I was an angel. An angel of death.

Sebastian looked at me in a mixture of horror and amazement. He was proud of me. He shouldn't be proud of me. He should be proud of the trainer, for giving Jeanette the opportunity to kill. A noble sacrifice, indeed.

A different tribute saw the dead trainer. They called for help.

Peacekeepers rushed around me, ripping Jeanette from my hands and sticking a needle in my neck. _Sedative,_ I knew. That was okay, I was done for the day. I happily accepted this temporary world of blackness.

_I am in the Arena. It is District 12. I go to the houses of my old victims, where my new victims hide. I find the young girl first, and avenge my sister. This is when I notice my weapon. A trident. Not just any trident. My trident. My Jeanette. She is here with me, drawing blood again. With me. Together._

_I go into the next house, where I find an old man. This is not a tribute. It is me. I stab me. I run to the next house. There is an animal. It is the trainer I killed. He unsheathes his claws, preparing to strike. _

_This is when I see Sebastian. He runs into the house, and a hovercraft drops from the sky, the claw breaking through the roof of our house. It grabs us, and we are led to safety in the Capitol._

_The Games are over. _

_I have won._

**Ryan Karry-District 8 Male**

I took a bite out of my slice of pizza, and tasting the delicious cheese as I spaced out. I had never eaten pizza before, and I wanted to savor every bite. This week was the first time my stomach had ever actually been full. It was a strange feeling, but I must admit that I loved it.

Back home, I had slept in a straw mattress on the floor, eating watery bowls of heated tessera grain, or whatever it was that my friends' families grudgingly served me.

Thinking about it, I realized that I had never really experienced anything like what the Capitol now had to offer for me. Our family had been at the bottom of the pyramid in District 8, living in a one-room house. We had no money, since our parents spent all of it on alcohol. My younger sister and I spent most of our time at our richer friends' houses, mooching off of their food and sheltering there when our parents were drunk and yelling at each other.

When I was Reaped, my first worry was that poor Veronica would have nowhere to go, as she certainly couldn't handle living with our parents. Then, I realized something. If she could just hang in there for a few weeks, I could try to win. If I did, we would move into a large house where we would be safe and healthy. I could pay for a therapist to break my parents' addiction. I could pay back Ethan and Jacob for their generosity of always letting me into their houses. Same with Veronica's friends. It would be perfect.

I had dreamed of this happy ending every night since the train ride to the Capitol. It had never occurred to me that I had no previous training. I wasn't prepared to kill, and I didn't even know how, except the basic things that I had learned during training. I had no allies. I stood less of a chance than most of the other tributes.

None of this had called me to reality. No one had told me that I wasn't going to make it. Perhaps it was fear that led me into my delusion, perhaps I actually believed it. No one would ever know. Nevertheless, I genuinely thought I could win. For me. For my family.

I dreamily finished my food and looked around at everyone else. Several other people were sitting alone. I saw my District partner across the room, talking to a pair of tributes. _From District 3_, I recalled.

I had known Isabella back home. We went to school together, in the same grade. I was just a few months older than her, but our birthdays were on different sides of Reaping Day, and she was still 13. I thought about allying with her, but decided that I didn't want to see her die if I won.

I had almost changed my mind about the possible alliance just yesterday, but by then she had already allied with the girl from 9. When I hadn't been training with weapons or learning how to survive in the wild, I had been looking for allies. Most of my chances had been missed, because other people had been much more forward with asking about alliances. No one had asked me yet, though. As I wallowed on this, I found myself looking around at the people who were sitting by themselves.

There was the girl from 2, but she saw me looking at her and snarled. I immediately shifted my gaze away from her. There was a young girl, I think from 10, sitting by herself and crying at her pizza. I continued on, noticing her District partner a few tables away. He was also sitting alone, and he looked my age. He also didn't appear to be crying or showing animosity towards me, unlike the others.

I picked up my plate and walked over to him, stopping for another slice of pizza along the way.

"Hi, I'm Ryan, District 8. Can I sit here?" I said as soon as I arrived at the table, spitting it out before I had a chance to shy away. He nodded, looking at me curiously. Lunch was halfway over already, so I'm sure he was wondering what was going on.

"Hi. I'm Sormir, from 10," he paused, staring at me thoughtfully, "Umm, why did you come over here, exactly?" He said as I pulled up a chair. I could tell that he was trying not to be rude, and so I answered his question directly.

"I was wondering if we could be allies. I have been trying all week to find someone to train with. I noticed you sitting alone, and thought it was worth a shot."

He chuckled at my forwardness as he took a bite of pizza. "Isn't this pizza awesome?" he asked, completely avoiding my explanation.

"Sure is! I'd never had anything like it until I got here," I replied. He had changed the subject, but at least he was talking to me.

We talked about the food from our Districts for awhile. I found out that his District didn't get very much food, even though most of them worked on ranches_. Just another part of the Capitol's reign_, I thought. I had to remind myself that my District would all get bonus food for a year when I won to get my mind out of a dark place.

Sormir was quite funny, and I enjoyed talking with him, since it took my mind away from reliving memories. We got up several times for more pizza, laughing each time. Other tributes' heads turned to us, wondering how we could laugh in the face of death. It was simple. I wasn't going to die. I would get home.

Eventually, a trainer blew a whistle, calling us all back to the training room for five more hours. I went over to the weapons training station, where I had been spending most of my time over the past two days. Sormir followed, and it turned out that we had been training next to each other all day without realizing. He picked up a sword and started sparring with a trainer. He wasn't perfect, but it was obvious that he had been working on this one weapon for a while and knew what he was doing.

I picked up an axe from a weapons display nearby, hurling it at a dummy, just like I had been practicing. It hit in the leg. Not perfect, but definitely a nice throw. Sormir saw, and stopped fighting.

"Nice work," he complemented.

"You as well," I replied, "How long have you been training?"

"Just these past few days," he answered, "You know what? I think the two of us could kick some serious butt in the Arena together," he continued, finally addressing the topic that I had brought up during lunch.

"Allies, then?"

"Sure," he answered, shaking my hand before continuing on to some expected questions. "What else have you done during training?"

"Just hunting for a few hours yesterday," I replied, glad that I had at least done something, saving me from looking useless.

"Funny, I did that this morning!" he exclaimed, "Do you want to learn something else before training ends?"

I agreed that this would be a good idea, and we bade the weapons trainers goodbye. First Aid was the only station unoccupied, as training had started about 30 minutes ago and most lessons were still going.

We walked over to the station, where a pretty female instructor warmly greeted us and told us that she could teach us how to create bandages and apply them, make tourniquets, or perform something called CPR. We told her that we planned on spending the next few hours at her station, and she said that she would try to teach us everything, since we were so eager to learn.

She explained everything, and we spent the rest of the day 'healing' dummies. CPR was confusing at first, but once she told us what it did, we understood. Sormir and I didn't talk to each other much, except for basic questions about First Aid, and I decided not to tell him that I had to win, as it might lower his spirits.

We were about to start learning how to create bandages when a girl came over and requested to join our lesson. The trainer told her that we were about to start a new lesson, and the girl sat down beside us. Sormir and I both found ourselves staring at her, as she was quite attractive.

She noticed our gaze and turned to us. "Can I help you?" she asked coldly.

"Uhm… hi. I'm… Ryan! Yeah, I'm Ryan. Hi," I said awkwardly, losing my train of thought as I gazed at her pretty brown eyes.

"Ebony Willow. Pleased to make your acquaintance," she said sarcastically, before turning to Sormir, "And you are?"

Sormir continued staring at her for a moment until he realized she was talking to him. "My name's Ryan." He paused. I looked at him, eyebrow raised. "No, wait. It's Sormir, sorry. District 10," he mumbled, clearly also lost in her eyes.

"Right. I met you at the Chariot Rides. You were the Cowboy Cow, right?" she said with a smirk.

"Yeah," he said, embarrassment written clearly on his red cheeks.

"Hate to break up the party here," I interrupted, looking at the trainer, "but aren't we here to learn how to make bandages?"

"Thank you," said the trainer. She then began her lesson. Sormir and I were able to take our eyes off of Ebony for the duration of the class. As soon as it was over, Ebony got up and left, moving on to the weapons station.

There were only around 45 minutes left until 6:00. Sormir and I were trying to figure out where to go next when we saw a short blond boy stab a trainer with a trident. At first, I assumed it was just part of the sparring, until I noticed that the trainer was unarmed and that there was blood pooling around the floor. The boy stabbed him once again, and I heard Ebony call for guards.

The guards sedated the tribute and dragged him off to the elevator. Everyone else watched in horror as the dead trainer was pulled away on a stretcher.

The first death of the Games.

"Alright, everyone," said a voice over the intercom, "remain calm. As I call your District, I want you to file into the elevator. The incident has been taken care of, and the tribute that attacked Mr. Johnston will be heavily guarded until the start of the Games."

The voice called Districts, packing the elevator six districts at a time. Sormir and I silently waited for the elevator to come back down. Many tributes were whispering to each other now, and I saw Sormir's district partner start bawling again.

"Jairus, what am I going to do?" a girl worriedly asked the boy from District 7, "He threatened to kill me like that once, but I didn't believe him."

"That's Brandi Hahn," whispered Sormir to me, his voice wavering, "her District partner was the one that killed the trainer. I remember them from the Chariots."

Sormir was obviously terrified now, and I worried for him. Unlike me, he wasn't going to win, he would never go back to his family. I felt bad for him. For all of the unlucky tributes that were unsure of their fate.

The elevator arrived, and the eleven remaining tributes boarded. Isabella and I were the second stop, and I stepped onto our floor, waving goodbye to Sormir as the doors closed.

Training had gotten out early today and dinner wasn't ready yet, so I went to my room and showered, utilizing the lavish soaps and hot water of the Capitol. I dressed in my pajamas and went back to the dining room. Our mentors and escort were nowhere to be seen, probably conferencing about the death of the trainer. Isabella looked on the verge of tears, and we ate our dinner silently and quickly, going to bed at about 6:30. I fell asleep easily, returning to my recurring dream of my new life after the games.

Soon, I knew, it wouldn't just be a dream.

**Sooo, how was this chapter? Again, I completely apologize for any mental damage Micha did to you. That's kind of his job. I hope Ryan helped fix that. He's a good kid. Just so you know, Micha was in a drug-induced haze. That was not the Games. Nor was it foreshadowing. It was a dream. Don't worry.**

**Oh, and fun fact. The conversation between Sormir and Ryan during lunch was completely based off of a real conversation that I had a while ago. Aren't I a great conversationalist? Heh…**

**Okay, here's some bonus material for this chapter. In case it wasn't obvious, the alliances are done. I will list them here, although by now you should know who's allied with whom. I will only list these once, so read carefully. And if an alliance breaks during the story, it will be obvious. Here they are:**

Lara Morris, Hector Castell, Menelaus Causter Jr., Axeley Willow, Xander Arlen, Resha Carishia

Campry Evens and Binar Vetens

Kithell Valenteen, Lysemet Sprintyarrow, Zenith Roa

Sebastian Cole, Micha Tolo

Jairus Cooper, Brandi Hahn

Isabella Corde, Sophie Descartes

Ryan Karry, Sormir Keelz

**And the people by themselves are:**

Amaryllis Boste

Hayley Thalia Jackson

Elysium Oak

Ebony Willow

Dallas Bond

**Go Me! I have all of these memorized!**

**Thanks again to everyone who reviewed: (We hit 125 Reviews! Let's go for 150)**

**Jezzieluvsu**

**Bear Juice**

**Trouilefou**

**Sean the Coruscater**

**Liveera**

**Jazzy Pseudonym**

**Mystery muffin**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**Jayfish**

**It-was-enchanting**

**DEDEBUG9**

**Fuzzycat901**

**Hayley TT Showbiz**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Oh, and for any of you who were curious, the average guess for my age last chapter was 16… Hmm… no. That's all I'm gonna say on the matter.**

**See you next chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	15. Gamemaker Sessions

**Hey, there, everypony! I've been spending ALL DAY writing, alternating between this and scenes from the Arena, so I hope you enjoy! **

**Do you all remember the split chapter, with Hayley and Resha, where I didn't overlap the time that they had in the chapter, because it would get redundant? If not, go re-read it. Because I'm doing it again! Yep! **

**In the Hunger Games, Collins says that on the third day of training, the tributes go to the Gamemakers after lunch for private sessions. So Sormir will have the first day half of the day, and Menelaus will have lunch and the second part! Make sense? Of course it does. I might do this for some other parts of the story, too. I don't know yet.**

**Also, as I'm sure you have noticed, I do the Pre-Arena stuff a little differently from good ol' Collins. This is mostly because I didn't look it up in the book. Whoops! But for all of you people looking for an explanation, let's say that it's because the games are about 40 years in the past. Stuff could've changed in between the 37****th**** and the 74****th****. It probably did.**

**Also also, I'm thinking about making another SYOT after this one, since it's so fun. Of course, it wouldn't be until I'm done with this one, but I **_**am **_**working on the Arena stuffs, so this story will be ending soon. What do you guys think about doing another one? (it would probably be the 38****th**** or something)**

**Anyways, thanks to my beta reader sarahhaley, my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox, and Blood Ransom and Lupus Overkill for this chapter's tributes!**

** Sormir Keelz- District 10 Male**

I woke up at 5:44, right before my alarm went off.

I had finally adjusted to the rhythym of training, but today was the last day. Then I would be ripped out of whatever regularity my life had assumed. I would be thrown into the Arena. Just two and a half days left, including today. I had made an ally yesterday during training, and from what I could tell, he seemed to be certain of his victory.

I had a much more realistic perspective, especially after seeing the boy from 12 murder a trainer in cold blood yesterday. Just like most of the tributes here, I had accepted my death at the Reapings. Who knew, though. Maybe one of us hopeless children would get lucky and make it out?

The alarm clock started beeping loudly. I hastily turned it off and got dressed and ready. I had been practicing swordfighting every day during training, and today was the final rehearsal for the Gamemaker sessions. Remembering this, I tried a few moves that I had learned in front of the mirror, grinning as I realized how silly I looked.

I stepped into the hall and walked to the dining room, a route that was now so familiar to me. The bustling activity and advanced technology of the Capitol were so different from home, and I found myself struggling to get my bearings everyday. On one hand, I was jealous of the Capitol and angry about the inequality, but on the other hand, I was simply grateful that it didn't remind me of home. Thinking about home in the face of death would be too much for me to handle.

My mentor, Cassandra, was already eating breakfast with our escort. Cassandra was the victor of the very first Hunger Games, back before the trained tributes. Back when everyone had a chance. She was in her late fifties now, and spent most of her time talking with the older mentors.

"Oh, hello, Sam," she mumbled, staring at her oatmeal with a blank expression, as if her mind wasn't quite there.

"Uhm, it's still Sormir," I stated. She hadn't gotten my name right this whole time, and we rarely communicated.

My District partner, Hayley, joined us, but before I could even say 'hello,' she began crying. Something had happened to her during the Chariot Rides. She had gone from a perfectly normal, albeit slightly depressed, young girl to a weepy basket case in seconds. After that, she had stopped talking altogether. My attempts to console her were useless, and eventually I had given up, focusing on my own survival over her mental health.

I finished breakfast and excused myself to the elevator, Hayley following close behind. We called an elevator and waited several minutes for it to arrive. It must have just delivered tributes to training, as it was totally empty.

"Are you okay?" I cautiously asked Hayley as she sniffled loudly and wiped her eyes.

"Sort of," she said, dropping the act for a moment, "Strategy," she finished as the doors opened at floor 1. Hayley began sobbing again as a boy entered silently, and we descended the last level to the Training Room.

"Good luck today," said the boy, shaking my hand when the doors opened.

"Umm, you too," I said, fumbling over my words in surprise. Had a trained tribute just wished me _luck?_ Maybe the Games wouldn't be that bloody after all. On the other hand, maybe he was just being sarcastic. I shrugged off his comment and searched for Ryan among the tributes.

As suspected, he was already at the weapons station, throwing axes at a target.

"Hi," he said upon seeing me.

"Hey," I replied, "anything interesting happen today?"

"Look around," he whispered to me, "Do you notice all the guards? There's, like, twice as many as there were yesterday. Most of them are following those two tributes," he said, pointing first to the blond boy that had killed the trainer yesterday, and then to a pretty redhead.

"Her district partner told me that the girl had a little chat with Snow yesterday. No one knows why, though," he explained after seeing the confused look on my face.

The girl noticed us staring and shot a harsh look in our direction. We quickly turned around and faced the weapons rack.

"So, what are you doing for the Gamemaker sessions?" I asked Ryan.

"Hmm, probably throw a couple of axes, make a bandage, shoot a fake rabbit. I dunno, just make do with whatever they give me," he replied.

"Same here. I guess we could just hope for average scores. That way, we could go under the radar for a while," I suggested.

"Sounds good to me," he agreed, "although I don't think we will have to try very hard to get crappy scores anyway." We both chuckled at the dark truth of this.

The two of us practiced for hours with our trainers, learning as much as we could during this last day. I'm happy to say that I improved immensely during my time here, and in my opinion, I was at the state where I could fend off a trained tribute.

A whistle blew, calling us to lunch for the last time. We would have time to eat, and then they would begin calling us out to the Gamemakers. We would have a chance to show them anything that made us special, or at all important, for the Games.

Ryan and I ate our pizza, both remembering how the food had created our alliance, more or less. We barely talked; the nervous knot in my stomach grew bigger and more painful every second that ticked by. I finally gave up eating altogether, and went to throw away my food when the first name was called.

"Hector Castell!" cried a woman with purple skin and clothes. The boy who had wished me luck in the elevator now stood up from his table and went with the woman. He saw me as he was about to go through the door and smiled. His small kindness helped to calm my nerves, and I returned to my seat.

The names ticked by until it was finally Ryan's turn. "See you in a few days," he said quietly as he left. The only time that I would have a chance to see him would be during Interviews, but even then, we would have no chance to actually talk. I would only ever see him again if we both managed to survive the bloodbath at the beginning of the Games. The thought made me cringe.

When he finished, his District partner's name was called, then the tributes from 9, and finally me. By this time there were only 6 tributes left, and we were all in a worry-induced daze.

I stood up as my name was called, knocking my chair over as I did, and stumbled to the door.

**Menelaus Causter Jr.- District 2 Male**

"Hector Castell!" shouted a Gamemaker. My young ally rose and entered the gym as the first tribute of the day.

"Ugh, what a brat," sneered his District Partner, Lara Moriss, as soon as he was gone.

Most of us ignored her, fed up by now with her constant complaints.

"If you would just shut up every once in a while, maybe you would have time to actually collect something about everyone to judge them about who they are. You're just making random guesses," I said to her with a glare. Hector was a nice kid, even if he was a bit young to volunteer.

The other boy in our alliance, Xander, was the only other tribute here who I didn't hate. All of the girls in our alliance acted annoying and superior to each other, and the girl from 5 barely even talked to me. She seemed to view me as nothing other than an angry wall of meat. It pissed me off.

"Quit the catfight," Xander said amusedly, "We all need to do our best today. If we all score high enough, all of the sponsors will be betting their houses on us as victors. I know that we pretty much all hate each other here," he said, throwing a loathsome glance at Lara, "but I hope I'm not the only one who realizes that we have to work as a team here."

We all nodded in approval, and shortly after he finished, Lara's name was called. She blew a kiss to Xander before exiting the room. I was up next.

"Does anyone know what I should do in there?" asked Axeley nervously. She was Xander's District partner, and I had spent a lot of time during training working with her, as we were both skilled with the mace.

"Don't worry, Axxy. You'll do fine," I encouraged, "You're not as good as me, and a few more years of training definitely wouldn't have hurt, but you're better than any of the lower district tributes. Probably even Resha," I continued. Resha looked slightly hurt by my last sentence, but we all knew it was probably true.

"Menelaus Causter!" shouted the Head Gamemaker, interrupting out brief conversation.

"That's my dad. You forgot the Jr," I said cheekily as I stood. She glared and opened the door for me.

I took a deep breath as the Gamemakers looked over to me .As soon as I was prepared, I ran through an obstacle course that had been set up in the back of the room. My speed and agility were nothing to brag about, but the Gamemakers seemed impressed when I smashed through the overhanging bags that were meant for dodging. I used brute strength to rip them open as I ran past them, leaving a trail of sand and torn fabic in my wake.

When I had finished destroying the course, I moved on to a line of dummies, grabbing the mace that I had been training with from a shelf nearby. I "killed" them two at a time, smashing the first's head and crushing the second's ribs on the follow through. The spikes on the head of the mace gave a satisfying visual as well, tearing holes in the thick canvas material.

I used my signiature blow on seven pairs of dummies, proving to them that I not only knew how to kill, but that I could do it effectively. Every pair of eyes in the room was staring intently as I finished the second part of the performance.

"Any one brave enough to fight me?" I called out. A strong-looking trainer wearing armor and carrying a similar mace was herded into the gym, and I charged. He attempted to dodge and swing at me, but my battle cry had caught him off guard. He was disabled within seconds, and I let him go.

"I also have self control, unlike that lunatic from 12. I'm sure you remember him," I said to the trainers and Gamemakers. Several of the Gamemakers clapped. The Head told me that I could leave now so they could replace all of the materials.

I gave a curt salute and jogged into the elevator. I pressed the second floor button, and was pulled upstairs to wait for my District Partner.

Our mentors, Julie and Milan, were sitting quietly at the Dining Table, eating lunch and talking.

"How'd it go?" asked Milan upon seeing me.

"Perfectly. The gamemakers were very impressed. I destroyed their obstacle course and fourteen dummies."

Milan seemed impressed, but Julie asked, "No survival skills?"

I laughed for a moment before realizing that she wasn't joking. "Seriously? Fighting's the only skill I need to survive, Julie." I answered coldly. She rolled her eyes and left for the living room across the hall.

A few minutes later, the elevator let out a _ding_ at our floor, bringing Amaryllis to the party.

"Did _you_ at least show the Gamemakers that you could do more than just fight?" Julie asked her hopefully.

"Sure did!" she said with a patronizing glance at me. I stood up, ready to punch her.

"No fighting until the Arena," Milan interjected angrily.

"He's right," said Julie, "You can beat the brains out of each other in the Arena. I don't care. But as long as you're here, you do what we say. Do whatever you need to do to be ready in an hour. That's when they broadcast training scores."

I stormed off to my room, thinking about what I had said to Julie.

_Fighting's the only skill I need to survive._

Was that really what I had been trained all of my life to believe? That killing was the only way to survive? To get the fame and fortune that everyone coveted?

My father had never gotten a chance to volunteer. He had built me in his image, name and all. I had been raised to kill, just like so many kids in our District. I had volunteered on my eighteenth birthday, just like my dad had planned to.

I felt like I wasn't even my own person now, just someone else's hopes and dreams.

**Heh, in case you can't tell, I like making the Careers doubt themselves. It makes sense in my mind, anyways, because how could you not doubt yourself in their situation? Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter. It's a bit shorter than usual, closer to the length of my earlier chapters, but that's mainly because I've been writing these kids' PoVs for the actual Games. Plus, both of these authors have two other tributes in the Games, and that gave me a reason to slack, I guess. Actually, the chapter wasn't that short. So never mind. **

**About the Games, I have everything figured out. Even the victor! And the victor is… you'll just have to find out. I can't wait! Just four more chapters! **

**Dallas and Brandi's PoVs are up next, and they are the Training Scores! They are being edited now. **

**Also, since Micha's disturbing mind was such a major hit, I re-wrote it as a piece of regular fiction for a writing club. Thanks a billion to MydniteShadow1996 for submitting our friendly neighborhood psychopath! Anyways, the story is titled "Jeanette" under the Horror genre of . Please check it out! If you do, I will certainly give you a cookie! Brandi and Sebastian play minor roles in it, as well as Isabella, as an unnamed character. The new story is quite fun. Enjoy!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter!**

**Hayley TT Showbiz**

**DEDEBUG(**

**It-was-enchanting**

**Jayfish**

**Fuzzycat901**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Trouilefou**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**Also, thanks to my awesome beta reader sarahhaley for putting up with all of my nagging, and to my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox for coming up with crazy ideas that could only happen in the Capitol! (or his disturbed mind)**

**Funny story about him, actually. I told him yesterday about the Head Gamemaker that I made up to be him (the purple woman introduced during Lysemet's PoV.) he was not amused. He almost threw a clock, actually. He didn't even know the irony of it. Perhaps he's both the Gamemaker **_**and**_** Lysemet, in some form? Just thought you all might be interested to know. You probably weren't.**

**See you next chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	16. Training Scores

**Little old me, here! Here are the Training Scores! This chapter is relatively brief, but I think you will like the ending. Besides this one, we just have Interviews, the night before, and the ride to the Arena! Are you guys excited?**

**Just a note here about Dallas. He is rating the girls based on appearance. Not anything else. My friend Bear Juice made him as a joke when I needed a guy from 11 before I could start writing. He is here for mild comic relief, before a fiery death in the Games. You don't have to read his PoV if you don't want.**

** Oh, and it's the moment you've all been waiting for! The only chapter where the Careers are actually called the Careers! District 12! Enjoy!**

** Thanks to my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox, my Phantastical beta reader sarahhaley, and Fuzzycat901 and Bear Juice for this chapter's tributes! (Although, it's a stretch to thank Bear Juice. You will understand when you read his PoV.)**

** Dallas Bond- District 11 Male**

"Time for training scores!" chirped the escort as Ebony and I wrapped up our dinner.

We walked to the couch in the living room, and Ebony quickly occupied the only single-person chair, a broken armchair in the back corner. I made a pouty face, and she looked away in disgust.

"Alright, everyone ready?" the escort asked before flipping on the TV.

"These certainly are some interesting tributes this year," croaked an old man on screen.

"You're certainly right!" exclaimed an impossibly fat man, "this is it, ladies and gentlemen! The training scores for the tributes of the 37th Hunger Games!"

The newscasters were replaced by pictures of the tributes that had been taken after the Reapings, followed by their score that the Gamemakers had assigned. I tried _so _hard to pay attention to the numbers, but I kept getting lost in the girls' faces, rating them for their beauty instead of their skill.

A nine for the girl from 1. She would have been a perfect 10 if it weren't for the pinched sneer on her face. She had blonde hair, tan, flawless skin, and the most amazing blue eyes. _I'd tap that,_ I thought. The male tribute passed by onscreen, but I paid no attention.

The girl from 2 was certainly an eight. She wasn't quite as attractive as the other girl, as she had the same blonde hair, tan skin, and amazing eyes, but she was frowning in this picture. Plus, on the second day of training, I had noticed that her hair looked short and choppy, as if she had cut it herself.

The girl from 3 could hardly be compared to the first two. She was a five all the way, with an average face, pasty skin, and brown hair braided down her back. The only redeeming quality were her eyes, a deep hazel in color with very long eyelashes.

The girl from 4 was the youngest so far, and her face looked cruel and evil, like a dark queen. Her ice blue eyes and dark brown hair carried off this appearance of coldness, and the overall look came together at a high eight.

District 5 was tan, but her eyes were small and narrow, and her pretty blonde hair had been mixed with a bland shade of blue, dragging her to a six.

District 6 was a fiery redhead, and you could see that her breasts were large, even just in the head and shoulder shot. She would have been a nine, except for her mismatched eye color. One was grey and the other green, taking her score down to an eight. Unfortunately for her, she just wasn't my type, anyways.

District 7 was quite average, scoring a five. She had a hollow, starved face, and the look on her face seemed as if she were about to punch the cameraman. There were freckles covering her tan face, and her brown hair was thin and stringy, as if it hadn't been washed in months.

District 8 also got a five since she was so young. She had long black hair and chocolate brown eyes, which would have brought her score up, but her skin was pale and pasty and she had a layer of baby fat obscuring her chiseled features.

District 9 was even worse, only managing a four. You could see her slightly bucked teeth peeking out from over her chapped lips, and she was also pale and pasty, with frizzy black hair. Her only redeeming quality was her big, babyish blue eyes. It made it hard to believe that the girl was actually 15!

District 10 was the lowest scoring of all, getting a three. Her childish features were obscured by scars all over her chocolate brown skin, and her dark brown eyes looked puffy and red, as if she had just been crying. She also had frizzy black hair that was hastily pulled back into a ponytail.

Finally, our district arrived, Ebony raising the standards with her beauty. She was tan and perfectly freckled, with light brown hair and brown eyes. The only obscuring features were her frown lines and scowl, that she held even now.

"Seven," I said aloud, referencing her score on my chart.

"No, stupid, I got a five," she growled, "quit being such a jerk. I mean, seriously, it's not like you did any better. A one? What did you do, flirt with the Gamemakers?"

I looked away, embarrassed that I hadn't even managed to pay attention to my own training score. Plus, she was right. I had wasted my entire time commenting on how pretty the Head Gamemaker's purple skin and hair looked. At the time, I had thought that flattery would help me, but I guess I was wrong.

Our conversation caused me to miss District 12, but I knew from talking to the girl earlier that she was a five. She was blonde and pale, with deep green eyes, but her face was marked from top to bottom with a hideous, jagged scar.

"Were you paying any attention at all?" Ebony asked patronizingly, hearing me let out a sarcastic wolf-whistle at the girl from 12.

"Uhm, no. I was staring at the girls," I said in slight embarrassment, standing back up and shuffling to my room.

I stood in front of the mirror in my room, posing and grinning, but finally realizing how weak and tiny I was compared to all of the other tributes. Ebony had been right. I didn't pay attention during training, and now I had a training score of a one. Most of the girls even hated me, since I had embarrassed them in front of their allies.

I realized that even at school, people talked about me behind my back, since I wouldn't leave them alone. I didn't leave them alone because I simply _couldn't._ The same thing was happening now, in the Capitol.

No one took me seriously, and my worst fear was coming true.

I was going to die a fool.

** Brandi Hahn- District 12 Female**

"Brandi, you ready?" my mentor called softly through my bedroom door.

"Training scores?" I asked.

"Yep, come over to the living room!"

I got out of bed, where I had been dozing off and dreaming about home. When I was Reaped, my brothers and I had agreed that it would be my job to find our mother in the Capitol and somehow signal to them during interviews if I did.

The assignment had given me a sense of pride, and looking for her had helped to ease the pain of my coming death. She looked just like me, even the blonde hair and blue eyes that were so uncommon in the Seam. I had described her to my ally, Jairus, in the hopes that she would be assigned as a servant to one of our floors.

A Peacekeeper had been saying disgusting things about what he was going to do to her, as a pretty woman with no one to protect her, but instead of merely ignoring him, she had punched his face in a fit of rage. He had pressed charges, and she was sent here, to the Capitol, to serve the rest of her life as an Avox.

I hadn't seen her so far, and my hope was dwindling. I had spent more time lately thinking of how I was going to break the news to my brothers during the interviews, and increasingly less time actually looking for her.

I stepped out into the hallway and was confronted by my psychopathic district partner, Micha Tolo, who grinned evilly when he saw me. He had been threatening to kill me ever since he volunteered for the Games, and after he had killed a trainer at the end of the day yesterday, I had been more and more convinced that he could actually carry out his threats.

I turned my nose up and snuck past him, never making eye contact with the freakish boy.

Our mentor, a woman by the name of Grace, saw the two of us enter the living room, and turned on the television. A shot of three newscasters was replaced by the tributes' photos, followed by the score that the Gamemakers had given them based on their training performance.

I followed the numbers closely, memorizing each one to the best of my ability, marking out the most threatening.

The Career tributes all got insanely high scores, ranging from eleven to seven. The girl from District 2 that had broken away from the alliance got the eleven, followed by the boys from 2 and 4, who both scored nines. The boy from 1 and the girl from 5, oddly, had somehow managed to score eights. The girls from 1 and 4 took the rear, scoring mere sevens.

The pair from District 3 had been crammed in among these powerful players, along with the boy from 5. The girl had managed a five, and the boy from 3 received a two. The boy from 5 got a four.

_These last three tributes wouldn't_ _stand a chance,_ I thought grimly, _but who was I to judge?_

The boy from District 6 also had a five, but his District partner only scored a one, the lowest score possible. I remembered the guards that had surrounded her today in training. That must have had something to do with it.

My ally, Jairus, got a four, and his District partner, Elysium, scored a five.

The girl from 8 also got a four, but her District partner earned a three. I could practically imagine the potential sponsors beginning to doze off or change the channel, now that the tributes had all proven their inadequacy.

District 9 both scored twos, and District 10 didn't do much better, both getting threes. Even I was starting to get bored, even though I should have been anxiously awaiting my score.

The girl from District 11 had managed to get a five, which didn't surprise me, as I had seen her training intensely throughout the week. Her district partner, however, only got a one. This came as no shock, either, as he had probably just stood there flirting with the women, just as he had been doing ever since he had arrived.

Our turn was up. First, my face was shown, followed by the red number three. _Not bad,_ I consoled myself, _there were others who scored even worse._ Lastly, Micha's cruel sneer was placed upon the screen, and soon after it came a bright number seven.

"Yessss!" he seethed, jumping off of the couch and running to his room.

_Seven. _Seven! That was as high as some of the Careers! I didn't want to imagine what he had done to achieve it.

An Avox approached us, silently offering a tray with delicate glasses of ice water. I halfheartedly glanced at her, nursing my dying hope that my mother was here. I saw a curtain of blonde hair covering her face as she served the adults.

Her hair looked exactly like mine. Like my mother's. My heart raced as she turned to me, offering the tray nervously. If this was her, now would be the time to find out. I thrusted my eyes upwards, and they locked with hers. They were the same color as my mother's. I sat there for a moment, scrutinizing her face.

Under the layers of wrinkles and frown lines that had accumulated over the years, I recognized the happy woman that had once been Brittany Hahn. My mother.

"Mom!" I cried out, tears streaming down my cheeks as I jumped up to hug her tightly. She couldn't reply, but I could tell by her eyes that she was both happy and terrified of this reunion. As soon as she had watched my name be drawn, she had certainly fought tooth-and-nail for a spot on the District 12 staff, for a chance to see me.

But this reunion came at a high cost. My life. We all knew that I wouldn't be making it out of the Arena. That this was just a small downhill section of the road to death. But in my tearful joy, my mind lost all of these notions. I was with my mother again. She was safe. As safe as she could be as an Avox. But she was still alive.

We stood in a tight embrace for several minutes, her fingers brushing my hair like she had when I was a child.

The frigid escort, always one to ruin a moment of happiness, interrupted, stating, "I'm going to have to report both of you if you don't stop. You both know that contact between Tributes and servants is strictly prohibited. Brandi, go to your room. And _you,_" she seethed, staring at my mother, "don't think that the head guard won't hear about this."

The escort dragged me away from my mother, and started to pull me down the hall. I turned back one last time when I heard the elevator let out a soft _Ding,_ followed by the sound of marching feet. Guards in white grabbed my mother, and the room was filled with guards. Two of them grabbed my mother and pulled her back into the elevator.

The room was filled with the broken screams and sobs of one who can't talk, but she was able to stop shouting for long enough to mouth one phrase.

"_I love you."_

**Alright, thanks to Fuzzycat901 for providing me with a speck of emotion to brighten up an otherwise completely factual chapter! You rock! And to all you out there at home, don't think that that chapter was the end of Brandi's angsting! There will be plenty more to come!**

**I am working on Sebastian and Xander's interviews now! The break between chapters might be closer to a week for a while, because my lovely betareader has about ten chapters from other people. She has been working very hard, but she definitely deserves a break. **

**For all of you trying to read my story, "Jeanette," I apologise for not saying that it's on the FictionPress site, under the horror genre. I hope you can find it!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter:**

**Aquacupcake**

**Trouilefou**

**Liveera**

**Sean the Coruscater**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Hayley TT Showbiz**

**Bear Juice**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**Fuzzycat901**

**This story currently has 145 reviews. Want to take it to 160? Let's do it! **

**Thanks again to sarahhaley, as well as my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox, and everyone who reviewed the last chapter!**

**See you next chapter,**

**Lightning4022**


	17. Hiatus Note

**Hey, guys! I know you're sick of my hiatus notes by now, but here's another one! Okay, give me until February 1, 2012 to work on other stuffs, and then I will be back! Alright, here's a list of stuff that I'm going to do while you wait **_**oh so anxiously**_** for me to update!**

**Work on my new crossover, (that hasn't been uploaded yet) The Canterlot Games. Yeah. My Little Pony/Hunger Games. PM me if you want more info.**

**Finish my other story, You Monster. I haven't updated in months.3**

**Work on the Arena stuff**

**Prepare the three Pre-Arena chapters (I **_**might**_** upload these before my break is over. Don't count on it.)**

**Betareeeeeeeeeeeeead. For MissRandomGirl and possibly Bear Juice. You should read some of their stories.**

**Submit to other SYOTs**

**Give my beta reader, sarahhaley, a break. This girl has seriously been working like crazy. Plus, she's working on her own stories, Autograph in Danny Phantom, and a Sherlock/Doctor Who crossover**


	18. Interviews

**Lightning4022, here, with the tribute interviews! I'm back from my month-long hiatus! Yay!**

**As lots of you have probably noticed, the last five chapters were uploaded REALLY quickly. This is not good, not good at all. It's not that I don't love fast updates (I do) but when the speed goes up, the quality goes down. This is pretty much a rule with me. After re-reading the past chapters yesterday, I almost died inside. I have been completely letting you guys down. It was my goal in the beginning of this to rise above the norm for SYOTs, between PoV structure, characters, and the Games themselves. But most importantly, I wanted this story to be high quality. Something you would actually enjoy reading, for something more than just minor cameo appearances of your character. I apologize for my lack of this. I promise to try to make these last three chapters exceptional, and the same with the Games ahead. **

"**And may the odds… be ever in MY favor!"**

**Thanks to MydniteShadow1996 and Trouilefou for your characters! I have an especially hard time writing dialogue, but your characters were the perfect head-start! Thanks as well to my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox, and most of all to my overworked beta reader, the lovely sarahhaley!**

** Xander Arlen- District 4 Male**

"You'll do fine," encouraged my mentor, patting me on the back.

The interviews had been part of my training in District 4. _I could do this._ Everything that I was proud of, sad for, or even embarrassed about was going to make an appearance onstage. I was going to give myself up to the Capitol audience in the hopes that they would take my side; that they would send me supplies in the Arena.

It terrified me.

I found my place in line, right between my District partner, Axeley, and Resha from 5. They were both dressed in gowns. Axeley was wearing a midnight black gown like the dark cliffs underwater. This was forbidden territory for fishing boats back in 4, and I could tell that her angle was dark and mysterious. The oldest trick in the book.

Our angles were going to contrast perfectly, in a way that I could only hope that the Capitol would enjoy.

Resha was continuing her electricity theme from the Chariots, being the electricity district and all. Her hair was still streaked with a shade of blue that matched her dress. She was shaking nervously, waiting to walk onstage.

Once all of the tributes arrived and lined up, we began walking onstage, Lara from District 1 taking the lead and lowering herself into the small seat. There were golden numbers stitched into the red velvet chairs. I found the chair marked 4 and sat, Resha and Axeley quickly following.

We were on a raised platform, facing the street where the general Capitol population was gathered. On another platform tilted towards us sat the elite. I saw many high government officials, as well as our mentors and stylists.

All eyes were on the twenty-four tributes now sitting onstage, and large screens mounted on buildings were displaying shots of each of us. Even people in the Districts were surely watching now, too, gathered around their televisions or watching from the school buildings.

The audience roared as Caesar Flickerman stepped onstage. He was wearing a bright purple suit with matching hair and eyelids. _Purple must be popular here,_ I thought, remembering the similar colors of my stylist and the Head Gamemaker.

He bowed and sat in his red velveteen armchair at the edge of the stage, where the interviews would take place.

"Let's give it up for this year's Tributes!" he called, gesturing to all of us. The audience applauded even louder, which I hadn't previously thought to be possible. _They really love their sport._ Many of the other tributes now held disgusted looks at the notion of us just being pawns in their game.

I didn't.

"Allow me to introduce our first tribute, Lara Moriss!" Caesar exclaimed as Lara stood up, beaming and flaunting her outfit. She was wearing a glittering corset-topped, cleavage revealing dress, with a completely sheer skirt. The Capitol men gave many wolf-whistles as she made her way over to Caesar, giggling the whole time.

_The little slut actually thought it was funny._

Her three minutes passed quickly. I barely even noticed what she had said, other than the fact that she mentioned _me _several times.

She had been flirting with me every day since we arrived, despite me reminding her _many _times that I already had a girlfriend. But, as much as I hated Lara, she could definitely help me in the Arena. She made a great second-in-command, and Menelaus and Hector had seemingly been locked into loyalty by her pretty face alone.

Hector went up next, talking about his training and why he had volunteered at the young age of 15. I also realized what an honorable boy he was. He had never had much time to talk at the lunch table in training, since he was constantly overshadowed by the louder voices of Lara, Menelaus, or even me.

Amaryllis followed, and the first question out of Caesar's mouth was about her Training Score of 10, the highest one this year. She pretended not to hear, and spent most of the interview talking about what "insufferable pigs" the people in my alliance were.

Menelaus was next, going for the simple fighter approach, and listing all of his various skills. The audience was still roaring, and Caesar was going strong, playing on each of the tributes strengths.

_Three to go, _I thought to myself as Menelaus' time ended.

The pair from District 3 went quietly, the boy barely talking and the girl coming off as witty, if nothing else. The audience was beginning to tire.

I never understood how they could put so much effort into the Hunger Games, but get bored so quickly.They did this every year.

"Next, we have the lovely Axeley Willow!" Caesar said as Axeley rose from her seat. She talked briefly about her family, and how she was going to win for them. She was also 15, just like Hector, and she was the only one in our alliance who hadn't volunteered. Apparently, there had been much uncertainty in the Capitol as to whether or not Axeley was qualified.

She assured them that she would provide plenty of blood and gore for their entertainment.

My stomach clenched as her buzzer sounded and I was called to the main stage. Brief flashes of uncertainty passed through me, making me dizzy. The slick marble stairs didn't help me either. I clutched the handrail, dragging myself back into the pretense of "fearless leader."

"Hello, Xander," started Caesar. He definitely had a way with people, and the way he shook my hand made me feel comfortable, as if there wasn't a large audience judging me by my every move.

"Hello. Having fun with Interviews?" I asked him.

"Of course!" he replied, "I've been especially looking forward to this one. As you may know, you are a fan favorite this year. Everyone here loves you so much, and we're absolutely _dying_ to know: What do you think of us?" he asked, beginning the Interview.

This was one of the standard Interview questions, and I knew that I would have to take him off of the beaten path here and now if I wanted to make an impression.

"Magnificent," I started, "I'm certain that you have the technology available here to cure my sister."

"Your sister?" he asked, obviously intrigued.

"Her name's Anna. The whole reason I'm here is to save her," I began, "Anna means the world to me, and I would do anything for her," tears welled in my eyes as I continued on, looking directly at Caesar in the hopes that someone would feel for me.

"I was given a chance to prove that several years ago when she was diagnosed with cancer. She only has one more year left, and I can't bear the thought of living without her. Even in District 4, we don't have the medicine to cure her. When I found out that you did, I began…"

I trailed off, not wanting to announce that I had been training for the Hunger Games. It was one of the few rules in the Games, and while the Capitol loved it, it wouldn't do well to announce it on camera.

"Preparing?" Caesar interjected, saving my speech.

"Precisely," I continued on, "When I win, I will be able to buy them from your brilliant scientists, right?"

"You certainly will!" Caesar replied, tearing up. The audience was now fully locked onto me. They knew that I wasn't one of the murderers here for fame and glory, I was here to save someone. I was a person, just like them.

_If these freaks could even be called people._

"So, besides Anna, is there anyone else rooting for you at home?" Caesar continued.

"Well, there are my parents, back home with her," I said, looking into a camera. I missed them all so much, but I couldn't show that while all eyes were on me. The audience sighed, and I continued on with a meaningful glance at Lara.

"I also have a girlfriend. Her name is Anya. We've been dating for several years, and I can't wait to get home to her." I saw Lara blush and look away, finally realizing that her attempts to seduce me weren't very likely to work. Knowing her, though, she would probably be back at it by the end of the day.

"Well, I hope you get back to Anya soon!" Caesar exclaimed cheerfully.

I had a minute on the clock left, and Caesar steered the conversation in a new direction.

"What happened to your eye?" he asked, gesturing to the scar running across the left side of my face.

"Well, a few years ago a fishing hook caught me in the face," I said bluntly, "But don't you worry. I can manage without it," I said, winking at the audience with my good eye. The women swooned, but I laughed internally at their perpetual lust.

"Speaking of which," Caesar continued, referring to my one weakness, "why do you think that you're going to win the Hunger Games?"

This was the most important question. The one that everyone was asked. The one that determined whether you were worth paying attention to at all. It was also the one that I had been preparing to answer for my whole life.

"I got a nine in training, didn't I? Second highest score this year, Caesar. I've been preparing for this my whole life, and I'm wicked with a trident." All of this was true, but now was the time to rely on my talent at spinning the truth.

"I have some of the best allies in the world, and together we can take out anyone. I don't have any problem killing these children, unlike most of these weak sappy-asses." The sentence stung as it hit my mouth, but I continued on. The audience was loving it. "I have the perfect abilities to be your Victor, but all I need is one thing." I looked directly into the cameras for this part, bringing the audience to the edge of their seats.

"I need you."

The buzzer sounded, and Caesar shook my hand, calling Resha to the stage for her Interview. I had timed this perfectly, leaving my audience wanting more, exactly as I had planned to. My allies patted me on the back as I went back to my seat. Lara hit a bit below and touching my rear, although I doubted that it was an accident.

I returned to my seat, silently watching the other interviews drag on. I had given myself up on camera today, totally betraying my quiet inner self. Having the world know me like this was terrifying, but the thought that my sister was watching, praying for my return, wishing that she could live another day held me together like a well-tied net.

**Sebastian Cole- District 6 Male**

_Taptaptaptap_

_Taptaptaptap_

_Taptaptaptap_

_Taptaptaptap_

"Stop that," my District partner snapped, pushing my hand off of the armrest between our chairs. Her arm now occupied the whole space, and I was forced to resume my rhythm on the other side, next to the girl from District 7. She looked at me coldly and turned to whisper to her District Partner.

This rhythm had been stuck in my head since I boarded the train to the Capitol. The drums pounded in my ears ceaselessly, taking away any hours of sleep that I had a chance to catch.

I glanced at my competitors, watching the girl from District 5 take the stage. The Host greeted her warmly, and soon her interview was complete.

The boy from District 5 went up next, his interview boring and irrelevant to anyone watching.

_All of the tributes are rather boring. _

The only tribute who didn't irk me was the boy from District 12. While he was crazy and murderous, his mind didn't work correctly, and so he believed all of my lies. I had pulled apart his mind on the first day, training the gears to turn as I ordered, and he now believed that he could work with me if we escaped the Arena.

"I said stop it, Sebastian!" my District partner whispered. Subconciously, my arm had made its way back onto the armrest, pushed her own arm off, and begun tapping again.

"Sorry," I mumbled, watching her roll her eyes as she walked up to the stage for her interview. She seemed like a good person, but her rebellious ideas made her a potential threat. It saddened me that I might have to take her out if she harmed the Capitol.

She had disappeared on the second day of training and had mysteriously returned on the third, looking shaken and scared, but refusing to talk to anyone. There were rumors going around that she had been confronted by the President himself.

They became plausible when I heard her interview. She talked about the horrors of the Capitol, and what they were doing to us, and how she was going to stop it. I found President Snow in the officials' booth, and saw his face grow red with anger. He was not happy. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

_Maybe I wouldn't have to kill her, after all._

"Next up, Sebastian Cole!" The Host exclaimed. I sprinted down the aisle and to him, blocking my face from the cameras. They made me nervous, since a photo of me in enemy hands could help the enemy to locate and possibly kill me. This whole interview was a threat to my security, and I was surprised that President Snow was allowing one of his specialized agents to get this much publicity. I assumed that it was part of his elaborate strategy.

The Host attempted to shake my hand, but I pulled back, hoping that this would be over as soon as possible.

"I wish to be called 'Android.' There may be enemies listening in, and my name cannot be broadcast on this unsecure channel," I informed him. He ignored me and began the interview.

"That's a lovely suit," The Host began uncertainly. I genuinely couldn't believe that my precious time was being wasted with this mindless banter.

"That is irrelevant," I told him. He looked at me strangely, and the audience began chatting amongst themselves, losing what little attention they were paying to me. The Host shuffled through his question cards, searching for something that might be more interesting to the crowd.

"Umm… what did you think the moment that you became a tribute for the Hunger Games?" he asked.

The answer was obvious. Of course President Snow had placed me here for a reason. I was almost certainly on a secret mission to infiltrate the Games. Of course, this interview was by no means secure, so I couldn't inform him of this. Instead, I merely replied, "I can't tell you this, I'm deeply sorry.  
>"Why not?" The Host pressed on.<p>

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you." The audience looked at me peculiarly, mustering a few fake laughs, but quickly resumed their boredom.

"Next question…" The Host mumbled, nervously flipping through his cards. "What do you think of the Capitol so far?"

"What's it to you? Did someone tell you about President Snow?" _I've said too much! _Snow's name slipped out. I saw him glaring at me from the Officials box. _A good agent would never have made such a careless mistake._

"President Snow? What do you mean?" The Host queried, raising his eyebrows and leaning into the table.

"That is confidential," I replied quickly, covering up my tracks. He rifled through his cards, pulling out a new one.

"Is there anyone at home watching you right now?" this was one of the most basic and most dangerous questions.

My parents and brother were surely watching this live in the town square, but I knew that that information could fall into the wrong hands very easily. If that happened, the consequences could be dire. That was one of the worst things about my job.

"Why? Who wants to know?" I asked, deflecting the question.

At this point, The Host was starting to sweat nervously, searching for something to bring the audience back. He began replying rapid-fire questions.

"How did you do in training?"

"No comment."

"What do you think of the other tributes?"

"They are unimportant."

"Why do you think you are a contender in the Games?"

"What's it to you?"

"What about that training score?"

"No comment."

"How was life in the Districts?"

"No comment."

"Why won't you answer any of my questions?"

"No comment."

Our three minutes of banter had dwindled down to twelve seconds. The Host took a nervous breath, wiped the beads of sweat off of his face and attempted his last question.

"Is there _anything at all_ that we should know when deciding to sponsor you?" he asked hopefully.

"That is strictly confidential. You may stop talking now."

I was fed up with this man's tedious speech, and I stood up from the chair and returned to my small seat before the clock ran out. My identity was safe for now.

The my district partner rolled her eyes and snorted as I sat down, and the girl from District 7 looked at me with pity as she stepped onstage for her turn.

**Alright! First chapter after my looooooong break! Yay! Okay, the next one should be up in a week or so! Just two chapters to go before the Arena! Can you believe it? I can't!**

**Hey, for any of you people out there with nothing better to do than to nerd about the Hunger Games (you are obviously one of these people), I have an interesting video for you. It's a fan-made movie about of the Hunger Games. The acting is mediocre in the first section, but it gets better and better. There are seven parts. I cried twice. I suggest you watch it, to get into the spirit of the Hunger Games movie.**

/watch?v=coNQOLQCFSo&list=UUrznSnBFqTyN2zzbsqR0WAg&index=14&feature=plcp

**Of course, you're going to have to take out the space, but that's just there so won't block it. WOOO, I'm so bad! **

**OOH! And you get bonus points (possibly sponsor points. Idk.) if you can explain the reference in the beginning of Sebastain's chapter! It's from another thing. That there is FanFiction about. I make lotsa references in my stories, but mostly about MLP. So this one's kinda different. Merry Christmas.**

**Oh, and in case you all wanted to know, my friends and I are getting dressed up to go to the movie! There are about 10 of us going, including the team working on this. I am Effie Trinket, my lovely beta reader sarahhaley is Katniss Everdeen, and my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox is Cinna. Just thought you might want to know! What are your plans for the Movie?**

**Fuzzycat901**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**Bear Juice**

**Lupus Overkill**

**DEDEBUG9**

**Hayley TT Showbiz**

**Jayfish**

**Sean the Coruscater**

**Lookingpastmysadness**

**Trouilefou**

**Mysterymuffin**

**Liveera**

**Bloodransom**


	19. Sneak Peek

**Hey, all you happy campers! I'm not sure if anyone's still reading this story, but I wanted to remind you all that I was still here, and that the Arena is just two chapters away! Here's a sneak peek from the first Arena chapter to keep you guys on your toes! Thanks to some mystery creator for this one… I wonder if you can guess whose PoV this is!**

**Anyways, the next legitimate chapter will be published by the end of the week! **

The plate lifted me into the Arena, and I briefly wondered what painful death Snow had chosen for me.

We had 60 seconds to look at our surroundings before we could start running. I didn't notice the Arena, because my brain was finally putting things together. _The mines._ They could blow me up, make it look like an accident, and the Capitol would be none the wiser. Snow's little scandal would be blown to pieces, literally.

"Goodbye," I whispered to my family, facing my death with pride. I clenched my fists, wondering if dying would hurt.

A plate exploded on the other side of the Cornucopia. _Wait? Am I dead already? This doesn't feel any different…_

_That wasn't me,_ I assured myself. Someone else had died already. I began to let out a sigh of relief, but it was cut short.

_KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!_

**I know. It's short. This was basically just my excuse for leaving another authors' note. Anyways, see you all soon!**


	20. Night Before

**Hey, you guys! Sorry that it's been a while since the last update, but these next chapters should be published pretty quickly. After all, there's just ONE more chapter until the Games! I can't wait! I'm going to go on a writing marathon. Alright, I want to give myself some credit here. Most of the time, you guys come up with the backstories. But Campry's was 95% me! One of the downsides of having a really small form is the lack of detail. Which makes me have to write a lot of stuff. So just let me know what you thought of her backstory!**

**Oh, and I apologize for the lack of content on Zenith's part. He's the only person that I will announce right now as a bloodbath, since he's so darn unconfident. But don't worry, Jayfish, your other character will have a large part in the Games… that's all I'm going to say…**

**Thanks to my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox, my beautiful beta reader sarahhaley, my guest beta reader Bear Juice, and MHM616 and Jayfish for this chapter's tributes!**

**Campry Evens- District 3 Female**

The boy from 12's interview concluded, and we were all herded offstage. The audience was roaring at this his immaculate performance, since he had described the demise of everyone onstage in excruciating detail. Surely the rest of us would be long forgotten.

I sighed in dissatisfaction as Binar and I exited the platform and were herded into an elevator. We ascended to our level with our shoulders slumped from the thought that our interviews had been so utterly forgettable.

The tributes surrounding us were considerably taller and more muscular, and they stared at us like dirt on their shoes. There was only one other tribute in the elevator that didn't appear to be on steroids. Kithell, the boy from 5. He looked like an ant compared to his hulking, blue-haired District partner.

We made eye contact as the doors opened at level three. He gave a half-smile as I exited the compartment. We would've made excellent allies if he hadn't joined that group with the pretty girl from 6. It all ended up well, as I allied with my own District Partner, but a brief pang of jealousy caught me off-guard.

"Oh, hey, guys!" our escort said with her freakish amount of excitement.

"Uhm… hi," muttered Binar, looking confused.

"Guess what?" she asked, practically bouncing on her heels.

"What?" I asked Ellie, raising an eyebrow.

"You guys have sponsors!" she practically sang this news to us.

"Very funny, Ellie," I said sarcastically.

"I'm not joking!" she defended, "Now, I know that I'm not supposed to tell you this," she continued, "but I was with the rest of the escorts today, interacting with the sponsors, and you two caught quite a few of their eyes! Mostly the middle class, but you now have quite a bit of money in your account. If you can just make it past the initial fighting, I should be able to help you. Thank Panem you two are already allies. Splitting up the funds is such a pain!" She complained before skipping down the hallway and disappearing around a corner.

Binar and I stood there, staring at where she had been standing with gaping mouths. Neither of us had expected any resources in the Arena, and had planned as such during training. This was an unexpected turn, but I was certainly grateful.

"So, I heard you have sponsors," John, our mentor, said thoughtfully, cleaning his glasses on his brown shirt.

"Ha, I don't know how you could've missed Ellie's shouting!" I joked, heading for the dining room. I was still wearing my dress and makeup from the Interviews, but I was suddenly so hungry that I didn't care.

John and Binar followed behind and sat down, and we were served platters of buttery seafood by the attendants. I had absolutely no idea what to do with the articles on my plate, and John showed me how to crack the exoskeletons, laughing about how accustomed he had gotten to staying here. He was one of the first victors of the Games, and the only one that our District had acquired so far.

"Well, how did your interviews go?" queried John.

"Didn't you watch them?" Binar asked coldly, shoving food around in front of him.

"Yes, of course, but I want to know how you thought they went. Binar, how about you go first, since you seem so intent on sharing?" John countered, raising an eyebrow and pointing to Binar with his fork.

"Fine," Binar sighed, fidgeting with the multicolored cube that never seemed to leave his hands, "I just told them that I had the brains to win. Pretty much it. I didn't expect any attention, although my fiendishly good looks must have turned some heads."

His face lit up in a smirk as he struck a pose at the end of his description, flexing his scrawny arms and flashing off his yellowed smile. We both knew that our looks were nothing to brag about, and this had become sort of a standing joke between the two of us as the week had stretched on.

"Alright," continued John, breaking into a small smile, "what about the _lovely _Campry Evens?" he asked, mocking Caesar Flickerman's introduction that he had given me during the legitimate interviews.

"Why thank you, Caesar!" I beamed, batting my eyes and trying not to grin before dropping the act, "I'm pretty much in the same boat as Binar. I suppose I might have sounded intelligent," I suggested, remembering the sheer volume of words that I had made up during the afternoon to impress the Capitol, "but other than that, there wasn't anything that interesting."

One of the worst things about being District 3 was that we received almost no recognition during the Games, as we were constantly being overshadowed by the larger frames of Districts 1, 2, and 4. The standard strategy for our children, year after year, was to hide away unnoticed and wait for the others to kill each other off. This obviously hadn't worked out very well so far, seeing as we only had one victor over the course thirty-six years. I didn't have a better plan, however, so this was what we were going with this year as well.

Our dear escort skipped into the dining room, wearing a completely new outfit. "Oh dear! I seem to have missed the party!" she cried upon discovering us at our meal.

"Indeed, quite the party it was," I answered, rolling my eyes and clearing my plate.

"Well then, in that case, shall we go viewify the interviews?" she asked, regaining her composure.

"'Viewify' is not a word," my District partner said, staring her down.

"I suppose it is not. Well, I'm going to go out, so have fun being smart… or whatever it is that you three do." Ellie stepped into the elevator, blushing, and left us alone.

"She's quite the charmer," John joked, "it's so sad that I only get to see her once a year, although I have a feeling that I may be seeing her again for the Victor's tour. You two both have quite a bit of potential. I could easily see either of you on the Victor's throne at the end of this."

"Doubtful," Binar mumbled. John always seemed to make predictions with absolute certainty, but they rarely ever happened the way that he claimed they would.

"Watching the interviews couldn't hurt, could it?" I suggested, attempting to drive the conversation back to productivity. I walked across the hall to our plush sitting room, where the TV had already been turned on by one of the attendants.

"Fine," Binar grumbled.

"Well, aren't I just lucky to have the two most enthusiastic tributes of the year?" John asked sarcastically.

"Shh! Isn't it your job to _help_ us? And wouldn't having us scope out the competition by watching the interviews be the best way to do that?" I scolded John, sitting down on the couch with my arms crossed.

As I watched the interviews, I understood just how unremarkable my performance had been. I stuttered over the questions, barely assuring Caesar that I had learned how to survive during the allotted time, and informing him that I only had one person to go back to, my older brother, who had managed to live without me for a long time.

Most people who knew me at home thought of me as the weird sociopath who didn't talk. It was true that I had no friends, but my cold front was really just a defense mechanism. I had calmed myself with this concept for over half of my life. Everyone that I had gotten close to had left me, sometimes by choice, but usually by force.

My father had left when I was born, claiming that he couldn't support two children. My mother had been forced to work in one of the most dangerous factories in the worst part of District 3. I barely remember her funeral, other than the fact that everyone seemed to know that it was going to happen eventually. I was just eight then, and my brother and I had to adjust to living by ourselves. He was allowed to take care of me, since he was sixteen when she died, but he was always busy with some girlfriend. I stayed away from him, fending for myself and living in my own mind.

My two best friends were Reaped to the same Games, when we were fourteen. They both died on the first day. After that, I had simply given up. One night, when I was lying in my room and fighting back tears, I had realized something. If I stopped caring, the pain would go away.

I retreated from life, dropping out of school in my last year. I moved away from my brother and ended up barely scraping by in an apartment and working at the factory where my mother had died. The possibility of my own death was constantly looming over my head, but it hadn't even mattered to me.

In this year's Reaping, my last year of eligibility, I stood in my section staring blankly at our escort. The rest of the girls were holding each other and hoping that they wouldn't be chosen while I patiently waited for the name to be drawn. The sighs of relief were audible throughout the whole town when Campry Evens, the girl who didn't care, was sentenced away instead of them. They didn't know me, so they wouldn't have to deal with the loss of a friend like I was forced to endure four years ago.

My goodbyes were short, and only my brother came. He and I hadn't talked in over a year, so he silently shook my hand and gave me a silver watch. He said it had been our father's. It was supposed to be a sentimental gesture, but I had stared at the watch coldly and let it drop to the floor. I had never known the man, not that it had ever mattered, and I didn't intend to carry a stranger's possession as a reminder of home.

My district partner reminded me quite a lot of one of my friends that I had lost to the Games. When I had first talked to Binar, I was shocked by the similarities between the boys, both their appearances and speech patterns. As my last dying wish, I had promised myself that I would help Binar make it out of here, if only because my subconscious pretended that he was Royter. My closest friend and Royter's fellow tribute, Sonya, would just have to wait. Maybe I would join her in whatever world came after this one.

Somehow, all of the interviews commenced while I was daydreaming and I ended up missing them for the second time of the day. The clock on the wall read 7:00, the time that work had finished at home. I excused myself from the sitting room, saying something about getting out of my uncomfortable dress.

I closed the door to my bedroom, stripping off the wire dress and stepping into the shower. The warm water came on automatically, washing off the makeup and paint that had been gracefully swirled on my arms and face by my stylist.

I closed my eyes, breathing in the steam and thinking about the Reaping again. I had managed to convince myself up until now that just like everything else, I didn't care about it.

But as I heard Ellie's ringing voice in my head, a new feeling emerged under the nonchalant haze that I had created for myself. As I had walked onstage, I had felt something painful and hollow deep in my chest, something that I hadn't felt for a very long time. I hadn't been able to place a word for it; the feeling was so uncommon to me. I had dismissed it like I dismissed every other emotion.

The warm water and soap seemed to rinse away the haze now, and I began to feel the deep ache in my chest that had been gradually getting more and more painful. The ground began to wobble and little spots grew in my vision. I had never fainted before, but I had the sense to step out of the shower. I collapsed on the soft rug in the bathroom.

_"Ladies First!" Ellie Tanget chirped._

_ "Miss Sonya Bettman, please come to the stage!"_

_ I opened my mouth to volunteer for my friend, but she covered it with her hand and stepped onstage, holding back tears and avoiding eye contact._

_ "Welcome to the Hunger Games, Sonya!" Ellie greeted in her most bittersweet voice._

_ "Now Miss Sonya's companion, we have… Royter Best!" she stumbled over Royter's unusual name, but he understood and climbed the stairs to join Sonya. _

_The three of us had been best friends for years, doing practically everything together, and now we were split up. Both of them would die, and I would be alone forever. _

_I let out a high pitched scream, trying to claw my way to them. I was seized by a Peacekeeper and dragged to my house. They had just stolen my chance to say goodbye to the only people that I still cared about._

_ I would never get to laugh with Sonya._

_ I would never get to tell Royter that I loved him._

_ I was terrified._

I opened my eyes slowly, rubbing my temples and clutching the wall for support as I tried to stand up. My best friends' faces were still burning in my memory. I dried myself quickly with a towel and climbed into my bed, wiping tears away with my sleeve.

I hadn't cried in years.

I hadn't felt anything in years. But knowing that my fate was the same as my friends', knowing that this was how they felt while I was at home, sad but safe, was too much for me. I burst into tears. Scared, lonely tears.

My carefully crafted, uncaring façade had been destroyed in minutes.

I was no longer the girl who didn't care. I was the girl who forgot how to.

I wasn't sure which was worse.

**Zenith Roa- District 9 Male**

"What the hell was that about?" I hissed at Sophie as we stepped off the elevator and onto our floor.

She looked shocked, regarding my reddening face with a mixture of fear and apology.

"Well… I wanted to make a difference. Maybe if you weren't so busy hanging out with your slutty ally and her boyfriend you would actually be of some help!" she exclaimed, turning on one heel and wiping away the beginning of a tear. She sank down on a couch down the hall, curling up and staring into outer space.

"Thanks for nothing!" I called down the hall. Sophie was really my only hope at this point, since the sponsors would certainly ignore me. I had put all of my cards into the fact that she would be able to charm the Capitol with her kindness, leaving the sponsor money to be split between the two of us. That hadn't worked at all, since she had just blathered on and on about world peace or something for her whole interview…

_Actually, I really hadn't paid all that much attention…_

My so called "slutty ally," Lysemet Sprintyarrow, had taken me into her alliance at the beginning of training. I still didn't know why. After all, even she and Kithell from District 5 often just stared at me with pity before talking about "our" strategy between themselves. I suppose it was nice that they had tried to save me from being alone as I died, if that was even their real plan for me.

"Come get some dinner, you two, and please stop bickering! It's ever so unbecoming!" called our mentor, Tallulah, entering the dining room beside our mentor, Alonso. They had announced their highly anticipated engagement last night in a feeble attempt to draw some attention to District 9. It was nice that they cared enough to help us by revealing this big deal on our behalf. It also kind of sucked that Sophie and I were so weak as to need that much help… _well, if it helps me get home…_

My parents were going to lose their only son. Thile was going to lose his only friend. I was going to miss them.

I slumped down in my dining chair, shoving food around on my plate but not actually eating any of it. What was the point of eating if I was just going to die, anyways?

Tallulah and Alonso didn't even bother wishing me goodnight when I got up from the table and went to my room. I nestled into the covers and drifted off to sleep.

Surprisingly quickly, for my last night on Earth…

**Anyways, the next chapter should be up soon! How was this one? And also, the reference in the interview chapter was to the sound of drums that haunt The Master in Doctor Who. I had several close guesses!**

**And in the sneak peek, that was Hayley Thalia. Great work, you guys! I can't believe you've all managed to keep up with this story! Cookies for all of you!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last two chapters:**

**Liveera**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Fuzzycat901**

**Bear Juice**

**Sean the Coruscater**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**Hayley TT Showbiz**

**DEDEBUG9**

**It-was-enchanting**

**Lookingpastmysadness**

**And thanks to my temporary and permanent staff- Lucius Knox, Sarahhaley, and Bear Juice!**

**See you next chapter for the last Pre-Arena bit!**

**Lightning4022**


	21. Helicopter Ride

** Hey, you guys! It's Lightning4022, with the last chapter before the Games! That's right, the Helicopter Rides! Or will it actually be a Helicopter? (Don't worry, that will make more sense later on.) Anyways, not sure how many times I've said this already, but I'm really happy about how this turned out. I just want to say that I love **_**every **_**character that is in this story, and that I've become borderline obsessed with some of them (just ask my friends.) **

** Okay... and a note here- Yes. The traveling to the Arena process is different. I meant it to be that way. Also, let me give you a language warning for Ebony's part. It's just part of the whole character set, but if you have a problem with it, don't read it. Sound good? Good.**

** Anyways, thanks to my breathtaking beta reader sarahhaley, my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox, and Lupus Overkill and it-was-enchanting for this chapter's tributes!**

**Hector Castell- District 1 Male**

"You'll do fine," Amy assured, placing a hand on my back and sending me into the elevator. She was one of my heroes, winning the Hunger Games when I was just a boy. My father had always told me to look up to Victors, being one himself, and I had gotten very nervous when I finally met my mentors, Amy and Craig.

I had only talked to Craig a few times, since he had taken responsibility over my District Partner Lara, but I didn't understand why she hated him so much. Every day, Lara had found some way to harass her poor mentor, from tying his shoelaces together to dumping a plate of pancakes on his head. She didn't seem to realize that he was once a fierce killer, and that he had honored our District by killing all but two of the tributes during his year.

"Move over, you ugly little… " Lara snapped at me, pushing me aside to hit the elevator button. Remembering that she was talking to me, she batted her eyes and added on an insincere "sweetie" onto the end. She had been trying to attract all of the boys in our alliance to her since day one, and had failed miserably on all counts.

Menelaus saw through her sugariness first, claiming that he was better than her and spinning her off into a gasping fit of anger. Xander was appalled by her, and he had repeatedly reminded her that he had a girlfriend in District 4 every time she tried to feel him up. I, on the other hand, had been the last to figure out that she was just manipulating us, falling for her compliments and letting the quips at my age go unnoticed for several days.

I was the youngest in the alliance, at only fourteen, and I was often belittled by the others because of my incomplete training. I was fairly good at killing with a spear, but the Amaryllis girl from District 2 had shown me up in front of all of my allies during training. I could see in their faces that when they turned on each other, I would be their first target.

It seemed as if I was the only one in our group that wasn't planning on killing my allies. I wanted to win fairly, just as my father had. That was his one rule for me during the Games- no betrayal. He didn't care if I ate the hearts of my victims like a boy had once done, as long as I wasn't allied with them while they were alive. While my mentors kept reminding me that betrayal was going to happen no matter what, I knew that I would never be able to face my family or friends again if I did something so terrible.

Even with this handicap of principle, I truly believed that I could win. I had plenty of sponsors at home, and going up second for the Interviews was always an advantage in getting the lazy Capitol citizens' attention.

_Lazy._ That was a word that I had secretly used to describe the Capitol since before I could even count. Although I would never say that to anyone, I had always been disgusted by the citizens. While we worked our asses of training every day for their little games, they were able to sit back, watch television, and sew furry underwear to sell to their friends.

It had never seemed fair, but that was just the way things were, and so we all continued on with our lives, fighting and killing and dying. It never occurred to us that there might be something more meaningful to do with our lives.

It hadn't even occurred to me, and in my ignorance, I mindlessly stumbled out of the elevator and into a black car with Lara. This was what would drive us to the airport, where a hovercraft would take us to the Catacombs, and finally to the Arena. I didn't have time to second-guess my purpose in life because I was too excited to even think.

My mind kept racing to the Arena. _What would the environment be? Were there going to be Muttations? Did I even stand a chance against everyone else? Of course I did. I would be fine,_ I assured myself.

"Hector," Lara whispered from across the car's small aisle. She was clearly making an attempt to be seductive, laying on the chair with her chest thrust forward and speaking in a soft, deep voice.

"Yes?" I replied, resisting the urge to laugh.

"We _all_ know that only one of us can win, but I think that it should be you," she gushed, leaning in towards me. "I want to help you. As soon as we get into the final ten, I think that the two of us should kill the others while we're on guard at night. They all trust you! None of them would see it coming! Then we could go start our own alliance, _just the two of us. Alone._" She batted her eyelashes and leaned in even further, until she was practically in my lap.

I moved as far away from her as I could, becoming trapped between the car's outer door and Lara's tan body. Struggling to find the right words and avert my eyes from her, I managed to choke out an, "Uhm… I don't know if that would be the best idea…"

"Fine!" She shouted, collapsing back in her own chair and folding her arms. After one final glare, she rolled down her window and lost herself in the architecture of the Capitol.

I now knew for sure that she was going to go after me first, and that I would have to be ready to run. Hopefully, I could get one of my other allies to defend me if she turned murderous. I doubted that would happen. No matter how much anyone liked each other in the Games, only one of us would make it out, and everyone was determined for it to be themself.

"We're here," the chauffeur said gruffly after several more minutes of driving. He opened the doors, and Lara and I stepped out onto a large, white field of concrete with several cone-shaped hovercraft. I counted twenty-four.

These craft were a completely new model, and I wondered why the upgrade had occurred. They usually only changed the design if something went wrong, and I couldn't remember any problems during last year's Games. _Not my job to question the Capitol. I'm not from District 3,_ I reminded myself, following the chauffeur's directions and climbing up the many steps to the small door of my hovercraft.

My stylist was standing inside the white inner compartment, along with a guard. He was holding a needle, which he quickly injected into my wrist. I felt a sharp pain that quickly faded, and rubbed the small bump in my left forearm. I had been injected with the tracker that the Capitol newscasters would use to locate me during the whole Games.

Next, the stylist, a tiny woman with spiky blue hair, approached me, proudly toting a clothing rack behind her.

"Now, I know that you're just going to _love_ the outfit design this year! I made it myself, for all of the tributes!" she revealed hangers with a grey, long-sleeved shirt, black cargo pants, and a brown jacket with the number 1 labeled on the front pocket in rhinestones.

I couldn't see what was so special about it, but I managed to say, "That's great, Sylvia!" to avoid hurting her feelings.

"Oh I know, _daaaaahling!_ No need to thank me!" she exclaimed, grasping both of my hands and kissing them, "I have to go now, but you get these on, and I'll see you soon!" she skipped down the steps and clacked her way across the pavement in her enormously high heels.

The guard left as well, informing me that I had just two minutes until takeoff. I nervously tugged on the clothes that I had been wearing and replaced them with Sylvia's creation. The sparkly number looked a bit odd, but she apparently knew what was best, so I made no attempt to change the jacket. I sat down in a white chair which immediately belted down around my waist.

I felt trapped for a moment, until remembering that I would be free after the flight. The Gamemakers didn't want any of the tributes getting hurt before the Games, so extra precautions were always taken to ensure our safety.

I sat in the chair for a moment, watching a clock on the wall slowly tick towards the time that we would lift off. A small knot began to grow in my stomach, and I started to feel sick. I noticed a white paper bag that had been conveniently placed on the arm of my chair. _How considerate,_ I thought sarcastically to myself.

In an attempt to calm my ever-growing nerves, I ran through my strategy for the Games again and again. We had been trained not to plan out a definite strategy. After all, there were twenty-three other wild cards in the Hunger Games, plus any crazy things that the Gamemakers decided to throw at us. But it was still comforting to have a basic idea of what to do, and my roommates and I at the Training Facility often competed late into the night to see who could come up with the coolest strategy.

I fondly remembered an idea that Mercury and I had thought of, where we lured bears into the camps of other tributes and finished off the kids after the bears had hurt them to near death. I couldn't wait to get back to my friends and take the title of best idea. There would be fame and money and respect, certainly, but I couldn't help think that the best prize would be escaping with my life.

I started to drift off into my strategy when the craft lifted off. We had also been trained for flying, but this feeling was not at all what I was prepared for! The craft was flying straight _up_, and fast! I immediately grabbed the white bag, preparing to vomit, but before I knew it, the feeling was over. I was rapidly shaking and shivering in terror from what had just happened.

_Was that some plan to disorient us? Are we going to go to the actual Arena now?_ I wondered, trying to slow down my breathing and calm down.

My seatbelt unclasped, and the craft's door opened, revealing the silver plate that would take me into the Arena. It took me a moment to realize what was going on.

I was finally here.

**Ebony Willow- District 11 Female**

"Ebony! Wake up, you lazy bitch!" My mentor Chris was pounding on my bedroom door, waking me up in the same loud, obnoxious way that he had _every single day._ I couldn't help but let my mind wander to how I could kill him. I blissfully imagined firing one of the guns that the Peacekeepers at home always carried straight through the door and into his ugly face.

"Let me sleep, asshole!" I shouted back. I didn't usually swear, but between the stress from him, my District partner Dallas, and the idiots in the Capitol, I had changed my policy.

Chris gave up, likely going to go pester Dallas instead. This was my last day in the Capitol before the Victor's Ceremony, and it would be a lie to say that I wasn't looking forward to escaping from this Hell pit.

I got out of my messy bed, not bothering to change out of my silk pajamas. I twisted my face into my signature scowl, throwing open the door and storming down the hall.

"Hey, baby. You look great," Dallas said sincerely, wrapping his scrawny hand around my waist.

"Touch me one more time and I will cut your dick off," I threatened to the young tribute. He shrunk away, grabbing a bagel from the nearby table and running into the elevator.

"That's exactly the kind of attitude you need to win the Games," Chris purred. He seemed to have some weird pedophilic obsession with me, and I could see his eyes darting down to my chest as he spoke.

"Don't think you're not in the same boat as Dallas," I snarled at him, grabbing a small knife from the table. He knew that I would carry out my threat, and he sheepishly backed down the hall and disappeared in his room.

I stalked down the messy hallway, ready to never see this place again. Victors were housed in a much nicer part of the District after the Games so that the rich citizens could have some "personal time" with their heroes. I honestly didn't even care, as long as I didn't have to set foot in this stupid building one more time.

The elevator that Dallas had taken had returned, completely empty. _Thank God. _ I did not want to spend any more seconds than absolutely necessary with that pervert. _To think that he had actually tried to ally with me, of all people! What did he think I was, some kind of whore? No one would be stupid enough to help that scumbag in the Arena. _In fact, I was completely fed up with his shit, and I looked forward to killing him. I probably wasn't the only one.

I entered the grimy elevator and punched the "Garage" button angrily. I couldn't wait to get into the Arena. I had wasted my whole life trying to find a way to kill the pain in my mind, and the only thing that I hadn't done yet was take my anger out on others. When the Games rolled around, I decided to try killing as therapy. I had absolutely no idea if it would solve any of my problems, but it was worth a shot, and so here I was.

The black car that would take Dallas and I to the hovercraft was waiting when I arrived in the Garage, and I stepped inside, slamming the door on my way. I noticed Dallas huddling silently in a chair, his hands protectively covering his crotch. I gave him a nasty smirk and seated myself, opening a window.

The car started, and I felt the odd lurch that I had never felt before my trip to the Capitol. I had learned the hard way that Dallas got motion sick when he had thrown up constantly on the train ride here. I noticed that he was holding a paper bag and clutching his stomach now. _Served the little fucker right._

We drove through the hideously bright streets and finally left the city, then continued for a few more minutes until we reached a large paved field with strange looking ships parked on the concrete. I couldn't tell exactly how many, but it was probably one per tribute. Our car pulled up in between two of the strange vehicles, and we got out of the car. I had barely had a chance to close the door when it drove away, leaving a painful spray of gravel in its wake.

Dallas and I stood on the pavement for a minute, unsure of what to do, until our stylists each stepped out of their pod-shaped hovercrafts. They called us over to them, and Dallas said a quick, awkward goodbye. I could tell that he was terrified for the Hunger Games.

That made one of us.

"Ebony, what _happened?_" My stylist shrieked, seeing my pajamas and unbrushed hair, "Just look at you! You're a _mess!"_

"Glad to see you too," I muttered as he ran a brush through my short hair. When he was finally happy with it, he ran over to a covered clothing rack. He proudly revealed a low-cut grey t-shirt, tight-looking black cargo pants, and a brown jacket with the number 11 written in purple rhinestones. "I didn't design it, but isn't it just _fabulous?" _he asked excitedly.

"Not really," I replied, raising an eyebrow, "it just kind of looks like clothes, but whatever floats your boat."

_Capitol freaks._

Wearing my pajamas into the Arena was a terrible idea, however, so I put on the "fabulous" clothes quickly. After I was dressed, he handed me a pair of black boots with weird, sticky soles, which I tugged on after a small struggle with the stupid laces.

The strange man climbed out of the pod, and I was left alone in the white room with a guard.

"Sit down," she advised, pointing to a white armchair in the corner.

I decided to do as she said, and a metal band was immediately secured around my waist as soon as I hit the seat. I struggled for a minute, until realizing that it was only a seatbelt, just like I had been forced to wear in the car.

The pod's door slid shut, and the guard pointed to a clock on the wall that was slowly ticking down to zero. _Just five seconds… Until what? Liftoff? I sat there silently, watching the number slowly change to 4… 3… 2… 1…_

"What the hell?" I shrieked as the pod launched upward. I grabbed the arms of my chair until my knuckles turned white, feeling completely terrified and sick as my body pressed against the restraints. The hovercraft was going at least ten times faster than the car had ever gone.

I briefly wondered how Dallas was doing, when suddenly the movement stopped.

"_What. The. Fuck. Was. That?"_ I shouted at the guard as the pod's door opened.

"Welcome to the Hunger Games," she replied with a smirk.

**So we're officially in the Arena now! I've had a poll up on my wall for a while now, requesting a vote from you guys as to whom your favorite tribute is. Please vote honestly, and not just for your own character, since this won't actually have any effect on his or her survival. This is more a gauge for everyone on how interesting they are, and it might just have a few benefits, such as how much screen time they get! **

**I haven't publicized this yet, since I wanted to wait until you had a chance to hear all of the tributes' voices, but now's that time! Go vote!**

**Also, if you would like to make a little epithet for your character to remind us who we're voting for, leave it in your review and I will add it to the poll choice.**

**Oh, and just in case you want to know why these last two chapters have been so slow. My beta and I have had to write at least five different papers over the past few weeks, so we have only had about two hours total to devote to our own stories, plus a bunch of editing for other people. But we should be speeding up now. Possibly.**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Trouilefou**

**Liveera**

**Fuzzycat901**

**Hayley TT Showbiz**

**Goldie031**

**It-was-enchanting**

**MHM616**

**DEDEBUG9**

**BloodRansom**

**Lookingpastmysadness**

**MydniteShadow1996**

**Once again, a big thank you to sarahhaley, Lucius Knox, Lupus Overkill, it-was-enchanting, and everyone who reviewed!**

**Also, I'm not sure if any of you could tell, but this chapter went completely unedited by my beta reader. How was the quality compared to the other chapters? Just let me know!**

**See you in the Arena,**

**Lightning4022**


	22. Bloodbath Part One

**Soooooo, we are officially in the Arena! Yay! Hope you all enjoy the first part of the bloodbath. Also, some of your favorites die in this chapter. I'm so sorry. Again, the way that I decided the bloodbath was with dice. If they rolled a "1," they died; no chance at fighting. If they rolled a "6," they escaped unscathed. This chapter has all of the 1's and 6's, and the next chapter has everyone else, who actually fight. I'm so sorry if I killed your character (okay, no I'm not. This is an SYOT, after all.) But I am sad that some of my favorites had to die. Too bad. I hope that you all continue to read this, even after your tribute dies.**

** Also, let me just give a side note. If you see someone at a store, or at your door, or at your school selling girl scout cookies, be a dear and buy a box. We work so hard to sell them. I stood out there in the cold flailing with signs for TWO HOURS with sarahhaley yesterday. As fun as it was, I would like to request your support of the crazy girls like us. Plus, they taste great. I've been fueling my writing escapades with cookies all weekend. That's my side note.**

** Thanks to my Head Gamemaker Lucius Knox, as well as everyone who submitted characters! Happy Hunger Games!**

**Dallas Bond- District 11 Male 12:00 PM**

The ground lifted me, disorienting me even more than the flight to the Arena had. Nerves had finally gotten to me. All I knew was that I would run to the Cornucopia, find Ebony, and try to secure a victory for District 11. My line of sight hit the Arena, and I saw grass, the Cornucopia, and… walls. I couldn't explain it. Was this all that there was to the Games? Would it be over that quickly?

My thoughts were interrupted by the girl standing on my right, Amaryllis Boste from 2. I had chatted with her in training. She liked me. Maybe we could be allies?

"Hey, Dallas. Come over here," she whispered, "I need to tell you something really important."

_Don't go,_ my brain told me. I knew there was something wrong with what she was saying. Nobody else was moving. But I couldn't figure out why. I stepped off of the plate to talk to her. Maybe she wanted to be allies?

_ KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!_

** Hayley Jackson- District 10 Female 12:00 PM**

_ Snow's onto me. After seeing me on the Chariots, he must have pieced it together. He knows that I'm his escaped daughter, and now he wants revenge_. I could see it in the way the Gamemakers regarded me.

I wasn't going to escape the Games. The President would make sure of it.

The plate lifted me into the Arena, and I briefly wondered what painful death Snow had chosen for me. Whatever it was, I would face it with dignity. I wouldn't cry.

We had 60 seconds to look at our surroundings before we could start running. I didn't notice the Arena, because my brain was finally putting things together. _The mines._ The Gamemakers could blow me up, make it look like an accident, and the viewers would be none the wiser. Snow's little scandal would literally be blown to pieces.

"Goodbye," I whispered to my family, facing my death with pride.

A plate exploded on the other side of the Cornucopia. _Was that me?_

It wasn't. Someone else had died already. I began to let out a sigh of relief, but it was cut short.

_KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!_

** Lysemet Sprintyarrow- District 6 Female 12:00 PM**

The plate lifted me into the Arena, just as it was doing for 23 other unlucky children. I stood on my toes to catch a glimpse of the Arena. Grass, with the Cornucopia in the center. Just like any regular year, except for the walls on all sides. _Walls?_ _My outburst at the Head Gamemaker must have really screwed up their plans if they couldn't even make a legitimate Arena,_ I thought to myself proudly.

My ally, Zenith Roa from District 9, was on my left. Kithell from 5, my other ally, was nowhere to be seen, but I could catch up with him at the Cornucopia.

I waved to Zenith as he arrived in place, and I could tell that he knew what I was thinking. He put his finger to his lips, a sign for me to be quiet and go to the Cornucopia. A sign for me not to do anything stupid.

Snow had told me that I would die anyways, after what I said about the Capitol during Training and the Interviews, but I might as well go out with a bang before _he_ could get to me. I waved goodbye to Zenith and looked down at the metal plate. There were explosives below, ready to kill anyone who moved. I planned to do just that.

"**Down With the Capitol**!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I jumped.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

My body would explode in a ball of fire, but my mind was already gone.

** Jairus Cooper- District 7 Male 12:00 PM**

Our 60 seconds were almost up, and three tributes were already gone, taken by the mines below. I noticed how everyone was nervously glancing down at their feet now, hoping they wouldn't be next. They were all wondering who had already died.

Hayley from 10 had been between Brandi and me when she exploded, and Brandi now looked completely mortified. I wasn't sure if she would make it.

I had managed to put the explosion out of my mind for now and looked around, planning what to do. I saw a loaf of bread in front of Brandi's plate, and a water bottle and packet of beef strips next to the plate that Hayley had been standing on. They lay there now, spattered with blood.

I would have to grab them, get Brandi out of her trance, and run through the door in the corner behind us. _At least, I think that's a door. _It was a silver rectangle in the wall, with a hand scanning pad like I had seen in the Capitol.

The Arena this year was strange, but there was no time to figure it out now. We could hide wherever the door led to and plan our next move after we escaped.

Our 60 seconds were up.

** Brandi Hahn- District 12 Female 12:01 PM**

_Hayley was dead. _

This one thought took over my mind as the clock ticked down to zero. I had only met her once, after the Chariot Rides, but she seemed so sweet, so innocent. Always crying, but now she was nothing. Why would anyone do that to a little girl?

Her death was playing on a continuous loop in my head, and I stood dumbly on my plate after the Games began. I saw Jairus run over to me with bloody supplies in his hands. He shook me, snapping the image of Hayley out of my head. He pointed at a door in the wall, and we ran off of my plate and away from the fighting at the Cornucopia.

While everyone was busy, we made a break for it. Jairus slammed his hand on a small scanner on the wall, just like we all had done to get into our rooms in the Capitol. The door slid open, and we stepped through. It closed behind us, and we had time to observe our surroundings.

"Just like District 7," Jairus gasped as he looked at the lush forest surrounding us. We ran for about an hour and finally picked a tall pine tree to climb. Jairus broke open the loaf of bread, which was thankfully free of blood. We each took a slice and washed it down with the slightly bloody water.

_Hayley's blood. _I had to get her out of my head.

Jairus suggested we get an early night's sleep, balanced in the forks of the branches, and I nodded my agreement. I looked out into the distance, where the cameras were, and waved to my mom, who was watching me from the Capitol in silence.

I would make it back to her.

** Binar Vetens- District 3 Male 12:02 PM**

"Campry!" I shouted to my ally as she ran to the Cornucopia from the other side. I caught her eye, and she changed the direction of her sprint to meet me on the side of the gleaming metal horn. "Stay low," I whispered, and we snuck into the mouth of the glistening horn.

All of the fighting was happening outside. I figured that if we hid in the shadows until the fighting was over and the trained tributes went after everyone else, we could escape unnoticed, unscathed, and with enough supplies to survive for weeks. Campry caught on to my idea, and we crouched in the farthest corner from the light.

Adrenaline and fear were making us both jittery and irrational, but I had to ask her something. "What's the deal with the Arena?"

"We're in outer space," she whispered. This much I had already figured out, but she continued on nonetheless. "The flight was long enough for me to think that it had a greater purpose than to disorient us. We're probably in an old space station, with simulated gravity. Obviously they've remodeled it, and the other rooms could hold anything. The gravity could also easily be manipulated, and don't think the Gamemakers won't have some fun with that." Campry had been paying much more attention than I had so far.

I fidgeted with the colorful cube in my hands that was my District token, moving the sections around into different patterns, as she asked me a question. "Who were the three explosions for? I didn't get to see any of the tributes clearly. Any idea why they died so early?" The mines under three of the tributes' had activated prematurely, killing them on the spot. One could only guess as to why they malfunctioned, but I answered her as best as I could.

"Lysemet Sprintyarrow from 6 was right next to me when she exploded. She shouted something about rebellion and jumped off. She's been acting insane throughout the whole Games, if you remember, but I thought it was an act. I guess not. The other two I couldn't see as clearly, but they were both on my side of the circle. The little girl from 10, Hayley, I think, was the second one to go. Her plate exploded on its own, but she seemed to expect it. I honestly don't know why, but I'm guessing she got in bad favor with the Capitol, just like Lysemet. The third one was Dallas Bond, that boy from 11. I think you remember. He flirted with you quite a bit during training. He stepped off of his plate to go talk to the girl from 2. That's all I know." I sunk into silence beside Campry, crouched down behind piles of supplies.

_In hindsight, sitting in the Cornucopia and talking was the thickest thing I have ever done. If I could have run out right then, my life might have still been mine. Unfortunately, I sat there chatting with my District partner, waiting, until the very end. _

Our voices must have grown louder as we talked, as the boy from 2 entered the Cornucopia, his mace stained with blood. He glanced around carefully, as if he knew we were there. He saw my taller frame in the back, and came charging. I saw Campry grab a bow and try to escape. She was the last thing I saw during my young life.

The mace came down, spilling blood and memories onto the metal surface.

_My first birthday, the death of my father, meeting Ben and Sean on the first day of school, Tect's graduation, my first kiss, Reaping day, Chariots, Training, the plate rising, hiding in the Cornucopia, death. _Everything flashed through my mind, and then it was gone, drained out onto the floor.

My life had come to a close in just a few seconds, and I drifted off into the unknown.

** Sophie Descartes- District 9 Female 12:01 PM**

** "**Isabella!" I shouted at my ally, who was leaving her starting pad just a few tributes away.

My bubble of hope that no one would fight in the Games had burst several days ago, but I had convinced Isabella that at least _we_ could survive without death on our hands. My pacifism gave us our first advantage as we sprinted into the gleaming Cornucopia under the noses of all the other tributes.

We reached the inside, quietly taking everything that we needed. I grabbed a green backpack, then a first aid kit, and finally, two of the most curious things in the Cornucopia this year, pillows and tape.

_Why would they even put these here? Well, I suppose we can at least sleep comfortably, _I thought, picking up a pillow lying beside my foot along with a roll of tape. There was one other pillow here, under a sight that I had been doing my best to avoid up until now.

A dead body.

I recognized him from Training. _He was the boy from District 3, his head now smashed open and fallen on the bloodstained pillow. He could have been sleeping, if it weren't for the blood._

Cringing, I grabbed the pillow from under him and looked away as his head rolled over, spilling more graymatter everywhere.

Isabella was also grabbing what she could, and I tapped her on the shoulder. "Time to go," I whispered, noticing a male tribute wandering around our escape route.

We snuck back outside, and the boy saw us. I whacked him in the face with the bloody pillow, stunning him and providing us time to escape.

Isabella began a mad dash to a door that she had been next to her while she was rising into the Arena. She placed her hand on a small scanning device, and the silver metal quickly slid open. We stepped through and it slammed shut, disappearing into a wall of sand.

I remembered overhearing a Capitol trainer talking about places like these, warning her class never to venture there.

They were called deserts.

** Sebastian Cole- District 6 Male 12:03 PM**

Three tributes dead before the Games had started.

Snow was making good time.

I would be out of the Arena before I could blink.

Might as well have some fun.

I ran into the fray, looking for Micha and getting supplies.

I didn't see him, but I continued getting supplies for both of us.

He was going to be trained as a professional killer when Snow got us out.

He couldn't die now.

As I collected supplies, I felt a sharp pain in my back.

I pulled out a bladed star.

Another one came just as quickly as the first; this time in the back of my head.

I saw the girl from 1 running away, her belt displaying weapons matching the ones now inside me.

_She was one of them,_ I knew. That was the only plausible explanation. She knew I was Snow's secret agent, and she was out to get me. She was one of the Rebels.

I pulled the second star out, looking for a coded message under the layers of my blood. I searched frantically across the weapon's surface, hoping for some sign that everything was going to be okay.

As I searched, I accidentally pulled back layers of my mind, letting my lies and disguises pour away like the blood gushing out of me.

_I wasn't special. Snow wasn't coming to help me. I hadn't ever actually talked to him. Micha would never be an assassin. I would never be a secret agent. We were just poor, deceived boys, hoping for something more. Something to be a part of. It was all my fault. I was a liar._

All of my talent in bringing out people's weaknesses was coming back to hurt me. In my 16 years of life, I had been deceiving myself, bringing myself to this moment.

Death.

My eyes closed, and a tear trickled down it, mixing with the blood.

** Micha Tolo- District 12 Male 12:04 PM**

Kill, kill, kill, kill…

I charged into the heat of battle.

The young girl from eight approached. I could finally avenge my sister Jeanette. Her ally hit me in the face. I tasted blood. It was delicious.

I finished tasting. They were gone. Sebastian was somewhere. I couldn't see him. I ran, looking for a new tribute to sacrifice for my Jeanette. My eyes landed on a petite, brown haired girl. She looked young. She would do well.

I ran at her, ready to kill with my bare hands, just like I had done in District 12.

What I didn't know was that she was armed with a mace. She was trained.

She laughed as she killed me in just one blow.

I would join my family.

I would join my victims.

The cycle of death that I had created was ending.

_Ending with me._

** Isabella Corde- District 8 Female 12:05 PM**

Sophie and I walked into this new world, and the door quickly closed and disappeared.

"Desert," she said quietly.

We couldn't see more than a few feet ahead of ourselves, and the world had disappeared into a gritty blur of yellowish dust. We hadn't taken our hand off of the wall, which was probably for the better. Together we silently dragged our hands across the wall, foot by foot, keeping our balance, The wall finally reached a corner, giving us some sign of progress.

The two of us continued in the new direction until Sophie, who was walking in front of me, sunk her hand into the sand wall. She brushed it away to reveal a scanner like the one that we had used to enter this terrible landscape.

Sophie pressed her hand to it without pause and a door appeared, sliding to the side as we stepped through. It stayed visible even after it closed, much to our delight. ugh _I never want to go back there again._

We walked hand in hand through the new territory. Springy, green plants carpeted the floor, and tall trees stretched high into the humid air. We didn't hear any animals, and I figured that climbing a tree to camp wouldn't be necessary. Plus, neither of us knew how to climb them higher a few feet from the ground.

"What did you get at the Cornucopia?" I asked, displaying the food, rope, grappling hook, medicine vial, and mace that I had acquired.

She smiled proudly as she dumped out the contents of a large backpack that she had been wearing. There was plenty of food as well as a small knife. She had also grabbed a first aid kit and some tape. She looked happiest of all when she showed me the two pillows that she had been holding. One was drenched in blood.

"Pillows?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep!" she replied, "I figured, 'Hey! If they're there, there must be a reason, right?' Plus, now we can sleep!"

"Hmm, I guess you're right," I said, peeling off the bloodstained pillowcase and casting it aside. "I'll take this one, I suppose. Good night, Sophie."

"'Night, Isabella!"

We slept for several hours, until we were woken with a start as our bodies were flung against the wall. I recalled the name of the force from school.

Gravity.

** Eeyup! Gravity! Kudos to Lucius Knox, my Head Gamemaker, for thinking that one up! It's going to play quite a big part in the Games, especially in two chapters. Each day of the Games will be in one chapter, with all tributes' PoVs, except for Day 1. It will be presented in 3 parts. The actual bloodbath fighting will be up next! Are you guys excited? I know I am! Please review!**

This is a chart that will be at the bottom of every chapter, so you can keep track of your character. If they are alive, their name will be written **like this.** If not, it will be in regular font, with a dash and the name of who killed them. If they are alive, there will be a dash with their number of remaining health points, their supplies written _**like this,**_ and their location written **LIKE THIS.**

The supplies are written PER PERSON, not per alliance. For example, if someone has 1 day of food supplies, that is just for them. Their ally also has one day of food, assuming they split the food equally. Also, the Careers' supplies won't be written out, just their weapons, as they have access to pretty much anything. Enjoy!

**Lara Moriss-50**

**Hector Castell-50**

**Amaryllis Boste-50**

**Menelaus Causter Jr.-50**

**Campry Evens-45**

Binar Vetens-Menelaus Causter Jr.

**Axeley Willow-47**

**Xander Arlen-47**

**Resha Carishia-45**

**Kithell Valenteen-45**

Lysemet Sprintyarrow-Capitol

Sebastian Cole-Resha Carishia

**Elysium Oak-40**

**Jairus Cooper-40, **_**1 day food/water**_**-FOREST**

**Isabella Corde-40, **_**2 days food/water, pillow, tape, Health Potion, mace, rope/grappling hook**_**-JUNGLE**

**Ryan Karry-40**

**Sophie Descartes-37, **_**2 days food/water, pillow, tape, First Aid Kit, knife, large green backpack**_**-JUNGLE**

**Zenith Roa-37**

Hayley Thalia Jackson-Capitol

**Sormir Keelz-37**

**Ebony Willow-35**

Dallas Bond-Capitol

**Brandi Hahn-35, **_**1 day food/water**_**- FOREST**

Micha Tolo-Axeley Willow

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! We're past 200 reviews! What a perfect start to the Hunger Games!**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Fuzzycat901**

**It-was-enchanting**

**Mystery muffin**

**DEDEBUG9**

**Hayley TT Showbiz**

** See you next chapter, (I'm almost done with it!)**

** Lightning4022**


	23. Bloodbath Part Two

** Heya, here's the second part of the bloodbath! I just love writing dramatic deaths. This is so much fun.**

** Thanks to my Head Gamemaker and king of gravity, Lucius Knox! Also, I'm just going to thank the person with the highest character votes by name, so thanks to Jazzy Pseudonym for Elysium Oak! Micha and Sebastian were both tied for first place with her, but they died. Thanks to everyone else who sent me their characters! Sorry if they died! (Okay, no, I'm not sorry AT ALL. Too bad.)**

At the beginning of each chapter I will have a copy of last chapter's end list to remind you how the tributes are doing. This is where they are in the beginning of this chapter, and it will be very different from the list at the end of the chapter. Also, if there is no data for them, it is because their PoV hasn't been written yet, so you don't know what's gonna happen.

**Lara Moriss-50**

**Hector Castell-50**

**Amaryllis Boste-50**

**Menelaus Causter Jr.-50**

**Campry Evens-45**

Binar Vetens-Menelaus Causter Jr.

**Axeley Willow-47**

**Xander Arlen-47**

**Resha Carishia-45**

**Kithell Valenteen-45**

Lysemet Sprintyarrow-Capitol

Sebastian Cole-Resha Carishia

**Elysium Oak-40**

**Jairus Cooper-40, **_**1 day food/water**_**-FOREST**

**Isabella Corde-40, **_**2 days food/water, pillow, tape, Health Potion, mace, rope/grappling hook**_**-JUNGLE**

**Ryan Karry-40**

**Sophie Descartes-37, **_**2 days food/water, pillow, tape, First Aid Kit, knife, large green backpack**_**-JUNGLE**

**Zenith Roa-37**

Hayley Thalia Jackson-Capitol

**Sormir Keelz-37**

**Ebony Willow-35**

Dallas Bond-Capitol

**Brandi Hahn-35, **_**1 day food/water**_**- FOREST**

Micha Tolo-Axeley Willow

**Menelaus Causter Jr.- District 2 Male 12:05 PM**

My mace was still bloody from the boy from District 3. He was my first kill. I had been training for that moment for all of my life. It felt oddly unsatisfying. Maybe another kill would help it to sink in. I caught a glimpse of the boy's District partner running out of the Cornucopia.

She was next.

I saw her running away, her brown hair trailing behind her. She carried no supplies, save for a bow and quiver. She would be an easy kill. My victory would be one step closer.

I caught up to her easily, lifting my weapon for another blow. She turned and saw me. Her untrained fingers clumsily grabbed an arrow, and she fired at me. The point just barely buried in my knee, and I pulled it out and continued after her, ignoring the slight pain as I ran.

We were only a few feet from the wall, and I saw her hand slam against a metal plate near a door. It opened and I swung the mace, catching her in the side and pushing her through the opening. I heard a crash as she landed on the other side.

Following her would be pointless, since I was certain that I had crushed her enough to make her die within a few hours. Her death wouldn't show up on my kill list in the Capitol, but she would still be gone. That was as good as I was going to get for now.

I turned my attention back to the Cornucopia where the fighting was finishing. My allies were all fighting the lower district tributes, but joining in would just throw them off their rhythm. I decided to return to the Cornucopia and guard the supplies as the fighting commenced around it.

I jogged over, dodging a knife that some girl had thrown at Lara. Lara ducked with a yelp as it and missed her head by a few inches. I continued on.

I reached the mouth of the Cornucopia and noticed that several supplies were gone, including a pillow that had once held the boy from 3's head. _Damn!_ I thought angrily, kicking the boy's corpse in frustration. _If I had just waited here, instead of chasing after that stupid girl, I would have had another kill on my list, maybe even two!_

I fumbled around in the piles of supplies, bandaging my knee and waiting for the death toll. There would be more to come, and they would be at my hands.

** Campry Evens- District 3 Female 12:06 PM**

The crushing blow to my side pushed me through the door. The opening was approximately two feet from the new floor. I could have handled the fall under any other circumstances, but the blow had caused me excruciating pain, and I landed face-first in mud. I could feel my cracked ribs puncturing my lungs, and I cringed as I coughed up blood.

Binar had been holding all of our supplies when he died, and I was left with barely anything when I ran from his executioner. The only items in my possession were a bow and 14 arrows in a quiver. I had already proven my inadequacy with the weapon when I shot at Menelaus. I had been aiming at his face, and from only a few feet away, I had managed to shoot at his knee!

During training, I had only practiced with a staff. I had never even touched a bow before today, and only brief examination while running had allowed me to even fire the thing.

I scolded myself while I crawled through the thick mud and reeds of this room. I could see white walls in the distance. Binar and I had already deciphered that the arena was in outer space, presumably an ancient Space Station. The gravity in all rooms was artificial, and could likely be manipulated in any direction. There was no way to tell if the ground I was standing on was "Down." After all, what is down when you're in space?

My camouflage skills that I had learned in training abandoned me now, and the trail that I made from the door to the wall on the far side was messy. It would be no challenge for anyone to find me, if they were looking.

I curled up in a corner when I reached the wall, and practiced firing my bow several times, at different spots on the wall. After 15 minutes or so of firing and retrieving, I was feeling very confident in my new skill.

My theory of manipulative gravity was proven correct while interrupting my practice. The room seemed to shift and turn abruptly, pulling my body to the side wall several yards away.

I was slammed against the wall, my quiver's arrows dumped all over the spongy, white surface that was now the 'floor.' The swampy world was on its' side, yet the plants and mud did not slide. They instead towered above me, again proving that this year's Arena was completely under Gamemaker control.

This impressive shift didn't faze me, as I had suspected something of the sort, but I couldn't fathom the reactions of other tributes while it occurred.

I gathered my arrows again, now shooting at places on the wall in front of me and accepting the changes of gravity. The Arena shifted several more times throughout the day, and the gradual dimming of lights told me that it was growing nearer and nearer to evening.

The trained tributes would be hunting in a few hours, and they knew where I was. I located the door that I had come through, which was now upside down from my point of view. The gravity had shifted several more times, and I was currently standing on what had been the ceiling when I arrived.

I could play the gravity to my advantage when they attacked.

I was ready.

** Ryan Karry- District 8 Male 12:05 PM**

** "**You guard while I look for supplies," I commanded Sormir as we arrived at the Cornucopia. I grabbed a red backpack thrown against the golden wall and ran inside. I was a few feet into the darkness when I saw an axe, sharpened and ready for throwing. This was the type of weapon that I had trained with in the Capitol, and I bent down to grab it.

Sormir was standing a few feet away, keeping an eye out for anyone looking for a fight. I picked out a sword for that looked about the size of the one he had been training with and passed it to him by the hilt.

I turned to go back into the Cornucopia, but was interrupted by Sormir's pained cry. I saw a bronze-hilted knife protruding out of his shoulder, just a few inches from the obvious target, his throat. He pulled it out and looked around, and my eyes followed.

We saw a blue and blonde-haired girl several yards away, crouched down next to her ally. They were both throwing sharp objects at the rest of the tributes, and we were likely the blue girl's targets.

My suspicions were confirmed when a knife embedded itself in my hip. I could tell that the wound wouldn't be life-threatening, but it certainly hurt like hell.

Sormir charged over at her, and the girl's ally ran. The girl throwing was slower to move, however, and we arrived while she was still crouched and readying her next knife.

** Resha Carishia- District 5 Female 12:10 PM**

One second, my prey were yards away, wondering what hit them, and the next, they were here and ready to kill me. _This was not good._ Lara had ditched to go fight her aerial battle somewhere else, leaving me alone and defenseless.

They picked up their weapons, preparing to kill. I scrambled to my feet, holding my knives and fleeing back to the Cornucopia. The two boys charged after me, and I scrambled to the gold surface. I noticed the ridged pattern on the gold horn that was melted to resemble a woven Horn of Plenty.

I grabbed the ridges and used them as small footholds, my sticky shoes aiding in my climb. One boy was wielding a sword, and I knew that I could escape him if I climbed high enough. The other one, however, was holding an axe. I saw his muscles tighten as he hurled it upwards at me from his space in the grass. It landed in my right leg, causing me to fall off of my perch. I landed with a thud, and almost blacked out. _Wake up wake up wake up! _I shouted at myself.

The axe slid out of its spot and the boy retrieved it before running off. I opened my eyes, shutting out the pain and glancing around the room; watching the fighting occur. Most of the battles were slowly finishing, and the weaker tributes were running off. I saw my District partner sprinting to a door and halfheartedly threw a knife at his retreating back. It missed by several feet, planting itself in the spongy white wall.

Most of my allies were busy fighting, but I saw Menelaus dodging between Lara's throwing stars and her opponent's knives. I followed him to the inside of the Cornucopia.

"Hey," I greeted, digging around for some bandages and discovering the dead body of a tribute among the supplies. "Who's that?" I asked.

"Oh, some kid I got," said Menelaus dejectedly, "but his stupid ally got away. Have you had any luck?" he asked.

"Nope. I was going after two boys with Lara, but she left and I got this lovely present," I said, pointing to my axe wound.

"Nasty," agreed Menelaus, finding a First Aid kit in the back, "You're going to have to better than that to win these games."

We sat in silence as I took the bandages and patched my leg. As the adrenaline rush of battle began to wear off, I began to wonder to myself.

_What was I doing here?_

** Sormir Keelz- District 10 Male 12:11 PM**

Ryan's axe hit the girl in the leg, and as soon as it fell out, we ran for our lives.

I knew that there was more to the Arena than just this one room. I had seen tributes exiting ever since the Games began. Plus, it wouldn't be any fun for the Capitol audience if we all died now.

The nearest door was on the far side of the Cornucopia, near the tip of the horn. We ran to it and I cautiously placed my hand on the scanner nearby. The metal door slid open, revealing a muddy, swampy room.

The doorway on this side was a few feet away from the floor, and we carefully jumped down. I saw several trails that other tributes had made. We stayed close to the white, spongy wall in the opposite direction of any tributes' paths, however, trying to avoid any confrontation.

We walked for just a few minutes until we stumbled across another silver door. I again placed my hand on the scanner. The door opened to a densely wooded space, filled with trees and bushes. The walls were soft and green like the grass on the farms at home.

_Home._ I missed home already, but now wasn't the time for emotion. Tributes were dropping like fruitflies, and if I wanted to return home, I couldn't be one of them.

Even though it seemed completely stupid and I couldn't explain it, the grassy walls of this room made me depressed and nostalgic. I requested that we move on to see what other environments this strange place had to offer.

We walked against the grassy wall until we reached yet another door, which led us into a large gymnasium, like the ones at my old school. Even thinking about school made me tear up, because it reminded me of Grayson. We were neighbors and best friends at home, and I had only been able to convince him not to volunteer for me by the promise that I would make it back. I didn't want to be rude and complain about this room as well to Ryan, however.

"Hmm, not many places to sleep," noted Ryan, saving me from thinking about home any more. We continued through another door, which opened up to a classroom.

This room was even worse to me, but Ryan seemed to like it. He cheerfully pointed out the beanbags and couch in the corner.

"Isn't this just perfect?" he asked.

I halfheartedly agreed. He found a deck of cards lying on a bookshelf and we quietly played poker.

The minimum bet was our lives.

** Lara Morris- District 1 Female 12:05 PM**

I saw the crazy boy from 6 fall after my star embedded itself in his brain. _Good. He freaked me out. _

I looked around me for a new target. Xander was starting a fight with a girl. She was quite pretty, and I considered going over there and killing her myself, but the risk of hitting Xander's perfect body was too high. I instead joined Resha a few yards away, where she was throwing knives at two boys standing in the Cornucopia.

I saw a girl sneaking around the edge of the Cornucopia with a backpack and knives. Our eyes met, and she ran from a nearby door and straight towards me, throwing knife after knife at my perfect face.

I was stunned. _No one attacked me, I attacked them! Everyone loved me! That was just the way things were!_ She threw another knife, and two of the three struck true, embedding themselves in my throwing arm and stomach. _Must've been lucky shots_, I reassured myself as I coughed up blood.

I got over my initial shock, and pulled another star from my belt, preparing to throw. I missed badly, as my arm was now weak and injured. _Thanks, you stupid bitch._ We threw at each other until I only had a few stars left. I managed to hit her a few times, but she was definitely winning the battle.

The boys Resha had been throwing at stormed over, and I abandoned her to continue my fight with this girl for as long as it took for her to die.

The battle was interrupted by Menelaus, who was stomping through our battlefield angrily. By the time he had passed, the girl was gone. There were several doors near her when she disappeared, and she could have gone through any of them.

The battles were wrapping up, and I saw Hector stab the girl from 2 with his spear before joining me. There were several bodies on the ground, waiting to be taken home by the Capitol's hovercraft.

** Elysium Oak- District 7 Female 12:12 PM**

_That self-important bitch that I had been fighting with had almost died. I could have killed her! It would have been for the common good of everyone here,_ I thought to myself as I wandered into a muddy, weedy room.

I saw a trail of blood leading in one direction and thought about pursuing it, but I thought better of it when I saw an arrow whiz across the room and embed itself in a wall. Whoever it was was clearly armed, and possibly well trained. Plus, I had used most of my knives trying to hit that slut's whorish body, and fighting this tribute would probably just get me killed.

I instead looked around and saw a door on my side of the wall that had just been shot. It was fairly close to me. I sprinted through the weeds to reach it, staying low to avoid being hit by the mystery archer.

I reached the door safely and pressed my hand to the scanner as I saw two male tributes enter the swamp. I ducked into the next room, avoiding their notice.

This new room was completely white, with shelves and cases of glass ornaments and baubles covering the walls. "What the hell are the Gamemakers going to do with _this_?" I wondered aloud as I looked around the room.

My question was answered just a few seconds later with a jolt. My body was flung to the left wall of the room, along with all of the glass. I scrambled to a door nearby and stepped through to safety.

This room was also white, but it was completely featureless, save for a small set of stairs in the corner that seemed to lead to nowhere. Thankfully for me, this meant no more glass. The shards in the last room hadn't been very dangerous, since I had escaped before they could do any lasting damage, but they had certainly scared me.

Suddenly, I dropped to the ceiling, landing on my backpack. Yes, I _dropped_ to the ceiling. After a few seconds of adjustment, I realized that the room hadn't shifted at all. _I had._ I sat on the ceiling in confusion for a few minutes, trying to figure it out.

Several years ago in school, before I had dropped out and hidden in the woods, we had learned about some strange things called outer space and gravity. At the time I had figured that it was just another way that the Capitol taunted us, reminding us that there was nowhere to escape to. Even if we managed to escape the Districts, as I had so many years ago, there was nowhere to go for help.

They had explained to us that we would always be trapped on this forsaken planet.

_They were wrong,_ I realized. Everything fell into place then. The "hovercraft" that I had ridden here had launched us into space. They were manipulating the gravity to disorient the tributes and draw them together.

_But what triggered it?_ I pondered. _It couldn't be random; that would be no fun. _My mind explained this for me as well. Right when the tributes had entered the swamp, gravity had shifted. It was caused by the tributes, of course! Someone else must have traveled between rooms to shift the gravity in this one, too.

Potentially, one could use gravity to kill all of the other tributes!

For once in my life, I actually had a plan.

** Xander Arlen- District 4 Male 12:05 PM**

"Aah! What the hell was that for?" Shouted a girl running away from me. I had just stabbed her in the stomach with a trident when she was rushing to the Cornucopia.

"This is the Hunger Games! Why do you think?"

She lunged forward and punched me in the face, catching me by surprise. Her brown eyes locked into mine, and she looked stricken with recognition.

"You!" she exclaimed, "You're the one that spent the Interviews crying about your little sister!"

I stepped back in shock, a sharp dagger of desperation slicing through the heat of battle.

"I'm doing this for her," I replied coldly, lunging with the trident once again. She dodged and punched me again with almost incomprehensible speed.

"You _honestly _think that she would want you to win like this? That she would _ever _look into your eyes and say 'I love you' after seeing you kill children? Children just like _her?"_

I couldn't think of anything to say. I simply stood there, trying to ignore the truth of what she had said.

_I was doing this for her, _I tried to remind myself, _the only reason I was here was so I could get medicine for her. So that I would have another chance to look into her eyes and hear her say that she loves me. This girl was wrong, whoever she was. I needed to win. For Anna._

I looked up again, ready to face this girl and finish her off.

She had disappeared.

** Ebony Willow- District 11 Female 12:09 PM**

I slammed my hand onto the door, like I had seen a few of the other kids do. I was clutching my knife for dear life, which I suppose it was. This little blade was the only chance I had at winning, since I hadn't grabbed anything else at the Cornucopia.

I saw Xander and the boy from District 1 chasing after me, but I slipped through the door before he could follow. _Thank God I paid attention to his interview,_ I thought to myself. My little dig about his sister had saved my life, but just barely. I looked around the new room that I was in, breathing in the smell of grass walls and tall trees.

This forest looked a bit like home, although the trees were denser and the leaves were thin and pointy, unlike the fruit trees of District 11. I desperately needed something familiar to hold onto in my mind, and this would have to be close enough. I dragged myself through the shrubs, holding my thin jacket to the wound in my side. The brown fabric was slowly turning red, and I knew that I would have to fix it quickly if I wanted to live.

I forced myself to stand up, stumbling for several hundred yards until I found a dense patch of bushes concealed by several trees. Using my knife, I cut a small hole in the base of the thicket and pulled my body through. I had enough sense to mop up my blood with my jacket and shirt, but I could only hope that my trail wouldn't be too easy to follow.

_Xander would certainly come after me, _I guessed, trying to figure out what to do about my wound. I crawled deeper into the thicket, taking off my shirt and using it as a bandage around my waist. Certainly the cameras couldn't see me in here, but I zipped up my bloody jacket to cover my chest just in case.

I didn't want the twisted audiences to see me half naked and dying. I wouldn't stoop to such a level. _The bleeding's starting to stop… _ I lied to myself. _If I could just last a few days…_

I started to wonder why I was even here. I had volunteered, that much I knew, and I wanted to take the pain out of my mind by killing others. This was all old news. But the pain of my wound hurt much more than any tormenting memories. That part had never crossed my mind.

_I know what pain feels like, _I thought, feeling the scar on my face where a Peacekeeper's whip had landed several years ago.

I lay in the thicket for hours, feeling trapped and protected in my little prison of a safe haven. If I moved even an inch away from the rooted bottom of the patch, I would be stabbed by razor sharp thorns. _But no one could get me here… _I assured myself.

My eyes began to close, from fatigue or blood loss I couldn't tell. I felt the familiar pressure of the small bracelet around my wrist, the one that my sister had given to me when she said goodbye. _You're not the only one with a sister to go home to, Xander. _

"I miss you," I whispered to Liliana.

I drifted off to sleep, huddled, half naked, bloody, and completely alone.

** Hector Castell- District 1 Male 12:06 PM**

I chased after a girl that Xander had just attacked, but she ran with such speed that she was gone before I was even halfway to her door. Xander had ordered us to stay near the Cornucopia ever since we had begun discussing strategy in the Capitol, and the walls gave us clear boundaries to stick to for now.

I returned to the Cornucopia and saw a shining, silver spear with a barbed point. It was perfect, and I ran through the supplies to get it, accidentally stepping on a boy's corpse on the way in. I saw a small, colorful cube in his hand and grabbed it. After shoving it in my pocket for later inspection, I pulled the spear out of a pile of pillows. _Pillows? Odd. _

I vaguely remembered the girl from District 2 stabbing all the way through a target with a similar spear during training. _I would have to stay away from her. _It would be unfair to fight her unarmed, and that was not how I wanted to win. But, if I fought her with equal weaponry I would surely die.

I couldn't decide what to do, but my dilemma was solved for me. As soon as I stepped back into the light, I saw a blonde figure looking at me with cruelty. Her mouth was curved into a frown, and she eyed my weapon with interest.

"I believe you're holding my spear," Amaryllis Boste said coldly.

** Amaryllis Boste- District 2 Female 12:09 PM**

_The disgusting boy from District 1 proudly waved around a barbed spear. My spear. He didn't even know how to use it! _I approached him, completely unarmed but confident that I could take it from his scrawny hands.

"I believe you're holding my spear," I informed him, beckoning for him to hand it over.

"You're going to have to come and get it," he said tauntingly, preparing to stab me.

I saw his arm rise, and I instinctively picked up a fallen knife from nearby. I hurled it at the boy, catching him under the rib and staining his shirt red. He looked shocked, but quickly recovered, pulling out the knife and lunging forward.

He moved faster than I had realized he could, and I didn't duck in time to miss the point of the spear. There was a blinding pain spreading through my body now.

In one final surge of power, I rammed my knee into his groin, causing him to double over and fall to the ground. My logical mind told me that there was nothing left to do, except put him at a disadvantage. Any weapons and supplies on the dead tributes were taken in the hovercraft, and there was only one spear in the Arena. _If I couldn't keep it, no one could._

I put all of my concentration into this one final goal, taking my mind off of the ever-increasing pain by holding clutching the spear for all of my life's worth. _My life didn't have much worth anymore,_ I thought to myself, chuckling and coughing up blood.

_I was going to die with dignity, _I reminded myself. I dragged my draining body to the far end of the Cornucopia, leaning against the metal surface and closing my eyes, trying to forget the pain and stress. I remembered a similar moment, days before during Capitol training. A girl had approached me beside the elevator, giving a heartless attempt to scare me out of killing her.

"_Games not shaping up to be as impressive as you'd hoped?" _she had asked me. She certainly had that right. There wasn't any fun in this, just death.

I wasn't prepared to die. The thought had never occurred to me, and I realized now that I had never given the possibility of losing any consideration at all. I was always so convinced that I was the best, but I was wrong. Training for the Games had been the stupidest thing that I had ever done…

"_Realizing that that you're not special, that you aren't some elite hero, just another tree, waiting to be chopped down like the rest of us?"_ I remembered the girl's name with a shudder. Elysium Oak. The lumber District, with their stupid tree names and their stupid tree references and their stupid tree costumes. Everything about trees, all because of some sort of weird "District pride" thing.

My District wasn't even allowed to say what we did, and we had to train our Peacekeepers and tributes in secret. I wouldn't even call the District home to me. I had never had a real home, or any real friends. Just people that I trained with, people who were terrified of me and made fun of me while my back was turned.

My whole life had been devoted to the Hunger Games, and it was all for nothing. Here I lay, chopped down and bloody, holding another boy's only chance of survival inside of my burning wound, wasting my last moments in some pointless act of revenge.

I was truly worthless.

** Zenith Roa- District 9 Male 12:06 PM**

_Lysemet had died before the Games had even started!_

I hadn't been able to think of much else for the past few minutes. My clothes were splattered with her blood, since I had only been standing a few feet away from her when she jumped off of her plate. She had shouted something about the Capitol, likely rebellious.

President Snow had personally informed her during training that she was not going to get out of the Games alive, but she had caused the death herself. Two other tributes had exploded before the timer went out, but I had no idea who they were. I didn't even care.

All that I knew was that I needed to look for my one remaining ally, Kithell Valenteen from 5. I saw his wiry frame darting around the fighting tributes, and I ran towards him and waved. He saw me and paused at the mouth of the Cornucopia, where he had been bending down to pick up a spear. I rushed over to him, oblivious to the other tributes around me.

"Kithell! You're okay!" I exclaimed.

"For now," he said, "but where's Lysemet?" He had been standing on the other side of the circle, his view obscured by the Cornucopia. I would have to deliver the bad news to him.

"She jumped off of the starting plate," I explained solemnly. His face paled, and he looked down at his feet despondently. It was no stretch of the imagination to think that he had developed feelings for the pretty girl during his time with her, and I knew that he her death had hit him hardest of all.

"No matter," he said, more to himself than I, "we need to get a move on. I have this backpack and my staff, but we need-" he stopped talking suddenly, looking behind me and paling even more than before.

"Zenith! Duck!" he desperately shouted at me. I had barely moved an inch when I was struck in the head. Time seemed to move in slow motion as my skull was smashed, spikes piercing through my brain.

_Suddenly, I was at the train station. My mentor was holding my hand, and the escort was telling me to smile for all of the cameras and act proud. I walked through crowds of people; cameramen and citizens of District 9. All of them were cheering._

_ I was almost at the Justice Building when I saw two adults who looked familiar. I remembered that they had been my parents while I was alive. I opened my mouth and spoke to them._

_ "Are you dead?" I asked._

_ "No, sweetie, we're still alive," my mom answered, placing a warm hand on my back._

_ "Am I dead?" _

_ "Yes, my son. You died in the Hunger Games," my dad explained. I nervously put a hand to my head, remembering where it had been smashed. It felt normal, but I knew that it had been damaged enough to kill me. _

_ "Oh," I said, unsure what to do now that I was dead._

_ "We still love you," they both told me, "and we will miss you."_

_ "I will miss you too," I choked out, wiping away tears. I hugged them one last time._

_The escort came up behind me, reminding me that we had a schedule to keep. She pushed me through the doors of the Justice Building, and I stepped into the world of the dead._

** Axeley Willow- District 4 Female 12:07 PM**

_Down in one stroke!_ I congratulated myself, bringing the mace above my head to hit the boy's ally. The ally, Kithell, took hold of his staff, looking alarmed and angry.

I brought the mace swinging down to Kithell, but he dodged. The lack of impact caused the heavy weapon to tug my left shoulder out of its socket, and I briefly cringed in pain. Kithell jabbed me in the rib with his weapon while I was raising the mace again, and I heard a sharp _"Crack!"_

I managed to catch him in the side with my mace, but the backpack that he was wearing cushioned the spikes. Nevertheless, he fell to the ground. _I could finish him off now._

I prepared the final blow, and I noticed Kithell fidgeting with the side of his staff. _What the hell is he doing? _I wondered. Suddenly, his metal staff buzzed and came alive with electricity!

He didn't look shocked in the slightest, and he stood up, facing me with hatred. "_You killed my friend!"_ he shouted, running toward me with remarkable speed.

The end of the staff connected with my chest, sending a bolt of energy straight at my heart.

I felt my whole body shake and shudder. Finally, an empty, painful feeling took over, something like having my whole body collapse in on itself.

_This wasn't my choice. Sure, it wasn't the choice of most of the kids here. But at least they had people who wanted them to stay. Everyone in my life just wanted me to go away. I hadn't even volunteered! _

_This wasn't fair. Why couldn't I have been one of the normal children, born to a family of fishermen? I always watched the little children playing on the beach. The small window in my room at home had overlooked the beach. I would spend hours watching the children building sandcastles and wish that I could be one of them._

_This wasn't right. The Hunger Games were terrible! How could anyone condone such a thing as watching children kill each other? Most of the Capitol citizens had children. Would they want _their _children sentenced to such a fate? Would they take away _their _child's childhood? Would they train _their _children to be murderers?_

_That's what I am. A murderer. The boy that I had killed first was insane. He would have killed someone else if I hadn't taken him out first. That was for the good of everyone. But the other boy, he just wanted to return home! Kithell had looked on the brink of tears as he killed me. I had just killed the only person that he could afford to be close to._

_He had attacked me out of revenge. I understood revenge; it was what made my world go round. It was okay that he wanted revenge. He could have what he wanted. _

_I couldn't. I just wanted to live. No one gets that, no matter how much they want it._

** Kithell Valenteen- District 5 Male 12:09 PM**

I just killed somebody.

_Holy shit! I just killed somebody!_

I dropped my staff, falling to the ground. _I was a murderer. _Sure, that was the point of the Hunger Games, but I had repeatedly told myself that I wouldn't kill anyone, even if it meant losing the Games! I was ready to cry, but I stopped myself, telling myself that I had to escape.

I picked up my staff and ran to the closest door, trying not to look at the blood staining the grass. I placed my hand on the scanner, stepping into the new world. It was a forest, like the one surrounding the factories of District 5. We had always been forbidden to venture there, but now my life depended on going into the forest's darkness.

Running through the forest tired my injured body quickly, and I felt a sharp pain in my side when I breathed. Axeley's mace had crushed my side and probably injured my lung, but there was no bleeding, thanks to my backpack.

_My backpack! _I sat down and curiously unzipped the ripped bag, pulling out iodine, a knife, and finally a small box with flint and steel inside. I remembered training to build fires in the Capitol, my mind thankfully omitting Lysemet and Zenith for now.

_"Building a fire was one of the most crucial parts of survival,"_ the trainer had told us. I got back to my feet and headed towards a small tree.

I tried not to remember Axeley, Zenith, or Lysemet as I cut the tree to pieces.

_Cut to pieces. That was how the boy from my District had died last year._

** Nine tributes died in the bloodbath! That's actually less than Collins killed during the 74****th****, so don't complain about what a psychopathic killer I am. I'm not Micha (thank god.) Anyways, here's the new list of people and places and dead things!**

**Lara Moriss-40, CORNUCOPIA**

**Hector Castell-25, CORNUCOPIA, **_**Colorful cube (Binar's token)**_

Amaryllis Boste-Hector Castell

**Menelaus Causter Jr.-30, CORNUCOPIA**

**Campry Evens-13, **_**bow, 15 arrows**_**- SWAMP**

Binar Vetens-Menelaus Causter Jr.

Axeley Willow-Kithell Valenteen

**Xander Arlen-30, CORNUCOPIA**

**Resha Carishia-30, CORNUCOPIA**

**Kithell Valenteen-34, **_**staff, black backpack, knife, iodine, flint & steel, firewood**__- _**FOREST**

Lysemet Sprintyarrow-Capitol

Sebastian Cole-Resha Carishia

**Elysium Oak-28, **_**White backpack, knife, iodine, 2 days food/water, 1 throwing star, 6 throwing knives- **_**STAIR ROOM**

**Jairus Cooper-40, **_**1 day food/water**_**-FOREST**

**Isabella Corde-40, **_**2 days food/water, pillow, tape, Health Potion, mace, rope/grappling hook**_**-JUNGLE**

**Ryan Karry-31, **_**axe, red backpack, knife, iodine, bandages, 1 day food**_

**Sophie Descartes-37, **_**2 days food/water, pillow, tape, First Aid Kit, knife, large green backpack**_**-JUNGLE**

Zenith Roa- Axeley Willow

Hayley Thalia Jackson-Capitol

**Sormir Keelz-35, **_**sword, 1 day food/water**_

**Ebony Willow-9, **_**knife**_**-FOREST**

Dallas Bond-Capitol

**Brandi Hahn-35, **_**1 day food/water**_**- FOREST**

Micha Tolo-Axeley Willow

** Oh, and please let me know what you think of the story so far! We just have a few more chapters until this story is over. BTW, I am definitely writing another SYOT after this one, so you might want to start thinking about characters!**

** Thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

**Lupus Overkill**

**Fuzzycat901**

**MHM616**

**DEDEBUG9**

** See you next chapter, when the REAL fun begins!**

**Lightning4022**


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